Our industry loves talking about food (honestly, who doesn’t?). So, when talking professionally about your product, it’s nice to explain the texture and taste on a scale everyone understands. That’s why we have Texture Profile Analysis (TPA). It began as a trained sensory panel measuring and describing the textural properties of food. Today, specialized equipment can be used for a more objective and scalable option.

What does texture profile analysis tell you?

TPA helps describe the textural attributes of the food product, which are broken down into different primary categories:

• Hardness: the initial force used to deform
• Cohesiveness: how the item holds together
• Viscosity: flow rate
• Elasticity: the rate at which a deformed item reforms, or its springiness
• Adhesiveness: rate at which item comes away from probe (instrumental) or roof of mouth/teeth

The primary categories can be further broken down into secondary categories:

• Resilience: measurement of how a sample recovers from deformation in relation to speed and forces
• Brittleness (Fracturability): the initial force needed for a material to fracture
• Chewiness: energy required to chew a solid food until it is ready for swallowing
• Gumminess: energy required to disintegrate a semisolid food until it is ready to swallow

Each of these categories can been broken down even further to give a clearer picture of the food.  Measurements are made by compressing an item to a set distance and analyzing the force it takes for the item to deform.