The crispness of crisps

Scientists have found a way to use mechanical tests and fracture properties to measure the crispness of crisps such that these quantitative tests agree with qualitative evaluations from taste panels. Photo courtesy of Photocase.com.

Few of us realise how much science is involved in the everyday things that surrounds us. Food has not traditionally been much associated with science in the minds of the consumers or producers. However, this is slowly changing, especially with the recent popularity of molecular gastronomy, which attempts to enhance the taste experience by understanding the physical and chemical transformation of the ingredients that occur during cooking. The taste experience of food, however, is not only due to the chemical flavour and the cooking of the food, but often also depends on the texture. This is especially true of potato crisps, where the crispness often determines the success of the product. Traditionally crispness has been evaluated qualitatively by asking people to taste the crisps and state their opinion. However, there is a significant interest among crisp producers in finding a more objective quantitative evaluation. Scientists have now found a way of associating crispness with the fracture properties of the crisps.

Dr. Francisco Rojo from the Technical University of Madrid, Spain and Professor Julian Vincent from the University of Bath, UK realised that crispness depends on crisps’ brittleness and low strength. They therefore decided to use fracture mechanics to associate mechanical and material measurements with qualitative evaluations from a taste panel.

The scientist used an Instron electromechanical machine to perform mechanical tests on three types of crisps, Salt and Shake, Sensations and Brannigans, where Brannigans has the highest crispness and Salt and Shake the lowest. The mechanical tests included load tests, tensile tests and three-point bending tests, where the propagation and morphology of cracks were measured along with the forces. 

The results showed that especially the structural bending strength obtained from the three point bending tests agreed well with the evaluations from the taste panel.

Thus it seems that mechanical tests can be used as an alternative to taste panel evaluations for crisps and other related food items.

Source:
Rojo, F. J. and Vincent, J. F. V. (2008) Fracture properties of potato crisps. International Journal of Food Science and Technology 43: 752-760.   

Tag it:

?

Be first to comment this article

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition