Texture

Abstract

Texture of any dairy food is highly subjective. “Eating quality” of foods encompasses many properties of foods that excite our senses of sight, touch, and sound. Texture plays a key role in consumer acceptance and market value of many foods. There are several definitions available in the literature to define “texture.” For example, The International Organization for Standardization [1] defines food texture as “all the rheological and structural (geometric and surface) attributes of the product perceptible by means of mechanical, tactile, and, where appropriate, visual and auditory receptors.” There is a vast range in textural characteristics of different dairy foods: the firmness, graininess, and spreadability of butter; firmness, cohesiveness, and springiness of cheese; coarseness, butteriness, sandiness, and crumbliness of ice cream; stickiness of milk powder; viscosity of yogurt and many others. This great range of types of textural properties found in dairy foods arises from the human demand for variety in the nature of their food.