Food and Beverage

By quantifying sensory perception, we are aiding the development of healthier, lower cost foods with the same ‘mouth feel’ as market leading products.

food and beverage

‘Creamy’, ‘sugary’ and ‘slimy’ are all adjectives commonly used to describe foods during consumer panel testing. By linking these adjectives to physical, measurable properties of a sample, analysis can be performed to screen numerous new formulations without the expense and ambiguity of panel tests, saving companies both time and money.

Using our instruments, researchers have discovered that the frictional properties of our favourite foods are related to their fat and sugar content (i.e. the higher the fat content the lower the friction coefficient, hence the creamier the taste).

Food and Beverage industry research areas include:

  • Reduced fat dairy products such as yoghurt, cream, mayonnaise and chocolate.
  • Astringency of wine, green/black tea and fruit.
  • Carbonated vs non-carbonated beverages.
  • Reduced sugar content of beverages.
  • Mouthfeel of foods and its impact on enjoyment and satiation.

Food and Beverage Industry includes the following:

Beverage

Beverage

Not just the taste but also the feel of a drink will change how enjoyable it is to drink. This has been investigated for everything from wines to soft drinks.

Food

Food

A key aspect of enjoying food is its mouthfeel. Studies have looked at a range of food groups such as dairy foods and their creaminess, and the smoothness of baby foods.

Pet Care

Pet Care

Pet food isn't just for nutrition but can also serve to clean their teeth. Research into this field is ongoing, in what is a rapidly growing market.

Instruments for the Food and Beverage Industry

Speak to us about our products

Get in touch

Food and Beverage Industry Articles & Papers

Paper

Correlating Wine Astringency With Physical Measures – Current Knowledge and Future Directions

Oral tribology receives growing attention in the field of food sciences as it offers great opportunities to establish correlations between …

Oral tribology receives growing attention in the field of food sciences as it offers great opportunities to establish correlations between physical parameters, such as the coefficient of friction, and sensory effects when interacting with components of the human mouth. One important aspect covers the astringency produced by wine, which can be described as the sensation of dryness and puckering in the mouth, specifically occurring between the tongue and the palate after swallowing. Therefore, this article aims at shedding some light on recent trends to correlate physical measures, such as the coefficient of friction derived by oral tribology, with prevailing theories on underlying physiological causes for sensory perception of wines. Some successful cases reported the potential of correlating wine astringency perception with the coefficient of friction in tribological experiments. Our critical assessment demonstrates that the findings are still contradictory, which urgently asks for more systematic studies. Therefore, we summarize the current challenges and hypothesize on future research directions with a particular emphasis on the comparability, reproducibility and transferability of studies using different experimental test-rigs and procedures.

View abstract

Paper

Comparison of Oral Tribological Performance of Proteinaceous Microgel Systems With Protein-polysaccharide Combinations

Polysaccharides are often used as rheology modifiers in multiphasic protein-rich food systems. Recently, proteinaceous microgels have garnered research attention as …

Polysaccharides are often used as rheology modifiers in multiphasic protein-rich food systems. Recently, proteinaceous microgels have garnered research attention as promising lubricating agents. However, whether proteinaceous microgels can be used to replace polysaccharides in a tribological context remains poorly understood. In this study we compared the flow and oral-tribological behaviour of Newtonian solutions of the polysaccharide dextran (D, 1–11 wt%) when combined with a dispersion of whey protein isolate (W, 1–13 wt%) or whey protein microgels (WPM, 41.7 vol%) and compared with microgels of D conjugated to W (Conj(D[11] + W[5])MG) or dispersions of WPM in W solutions. W and WPM alleviated frictional forces between elastomeric surfaces as well as biomimetic tongue-like surfaces in the boundary lubrication regime. Despite the negligible influence of D on the thin-film lubricity, its impact on viscous-facilitated lubricity was significant. The importance of measurements with the tongue-mimicked setup emerged where Conj(D[11] + W[5])MG did not show significant lubricity enhancement despite its outstanding performance with conventional tribo-testing setups. By optimising a combination of WPM and non-microgelled W, we demonstrate that a combined viscous and thin-film lubricity could be achieved through a single-protein-component without the need of polysaccharides. The dispersions of WPM (41.7 vol%) deliver the same flow and viscous-friction behaviour to that of 5 wt% D and excel in thin-film lubricity. These findings pave the way towards design of processed foods with clean labels, taking advantage of using a single proteinaceous moiety whilst delivering enhanced lubricity and viscosity modification without the need of any additional thickener.

View abstract