INSTRUMENTAL TEXTURE ANALYSIS - AN OBJECTIVE METHOD TO EVALUATE FRESH VEGETABLES QUALITY

INSTRUMENTAL TEXTURE ANALYSIS - AN OBJECTIVE METHOD TO EVALUATE FRESH VEGETABLES QUALITY

Adrian Roşca^1*, Daniela Roşca²

¹University of Craiova, Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture, Romania

ABSTRACT

Texture is an important index of food quality and refers to those qualities of a food that can be felt with the fingers, tongue, palate, or teeth. Foods have different textures and the evaluation of texture involves measuring the response of a food when it is subjected to mechanical forces such as cutting, shearing, chewing, compressing or stretching. The paper presents international instrumental texture analysis methods proposed to remove the most elements of subjectivity from the fresh vegetables quality testing and recent experimental results obtained on vegetables freshness.

Keywords: instrumental texture analysis, cutting and penetration force, fresh vegetable

*Corresponding author:Adrian Roșca, phone: 0251.414.541; fax: 0251.414.541; E-mail: a This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

²⁾University of Craiova, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, 13, A. I. Cuza Street, Craiova