Many authors have drawn attention to the limitations of present texture testing methods. To a great extent this may be due to the assumption that the perception of the structural properties of foods is comprised of a series of single attributes. This philosophy may account for the failure of the single instrumental measurement as a reliable texture descriptor.

The present paper emphasises that texture perception is a dynamic sensory monitor of changes made to a food by processes occurring in the mouth. A general three dimensional model applicable to foods is postulated with “Degree of Structure”, “Degree of Lubrication” and “Time” as its axes. As each food is changed in the mouth, it describes its own “Breakdown Path” throughout the three dimensions. This approach is seen as the start of a general hypothesis for the physics and psychophysics of mastication.

The perception of food texture ‐ the philosophy of the breakdown path

Consumer expectations and perceptions of meat and meat product quality

Sensory properties and preferences

Comparison of six crossbred lamb types: sensory, physical and nutritional meat quality characteristics.

This study was conducted to evaluate a new shearing method for the determination of poultry meat tenderness. Breast fillets were deboned at various postmortem times (0.25 to 24 h) to yield a vast array of tenderness levels. A trained descriptive panel was used to evaluate samples for attributes including initial hardness and chewdown hardness; instrumental measurements included Allo-Kramer (AK) and razor blade (RB) shear and laser sarcomere length determination. The RB shear method exhibited a higher correlation to sensory attributes than the AK method, suggesting that the new razor blade shear method is more advantageous in predicting poultry meat tenderness than the standard AK shear method. This new method not only has a higher sensory predictive value, but also requires shorter sample preparation time than the AK shear test because it is conducted on intact fillets.

Prediction of Poultry Meat Tenderness Using Razor Blade Shear, Allo-Kramer Shear, and Sarcomere Length

A multi-parameter scoring system for the sensory characteristics of the texture and flavour of meat or meaty products was developed. A trained panel used the system to give sensory data on 13 products. Principal Components Analysis of this data showed that the parameters of the system could be reduced to three independent components toughness, succulence and flavour, with little loss of information. The acceptability of the products (as measured by an independent panel of consumers) was shown to be predictable from the three derived components. Optimal acceptability regions in the three-dimensional sensory space were then identified.

L. John Taylor

Papers

Exploring the relationship between sensory data and acceptability of meat