Elastic and Rupture Analysis on Food Gels

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to develop an evaluation method for the texture of gel-like foods by analyzing their mechanical properties. Various commercial gel-like foods were prepared, and compression measurements of elasticity, rupture, and penetration of 10 mm cubic gel-like food samples were performed with three kinds of plungers. The Blatz, Sharda and Tschoegl (BST) equation for rubber elasticity was applied to the relationship between stress and strain curves obtained from the elastic measurement of the gel-like foods, and elastic parameter E and nonlinear index n were calculated. Elastic parameter E, nonlinear index n, rupture stress σr, rupture depth Dr, penetration rupture stress σ p, and penetration rupture depth Dp were obtained, and the respective characteristics were evaluated separately. The gel-like foods had an E between 6.1×10² and 1.9×10⁴. The value of n was distributed in the range of about 1 to 8. The results suggested that n is a valuable new parameter to explain the texture of gel-like foods. As a result, n and E could be used to profile a variety of gel-like foods as two- or three-dimensional maps.