ABSTRACT
For a long time, research on sensory perception was focused on taste, flavor, and some simple mechanical properties of a product such as vis-cosity, firmness, and hardness. In the past decades, it has become increasingly clear that many sensory attributes cannot be related to a single physical or chemical property of the food in a simple way. This was found to apply for taste, odor, as well as texture perception. For texture, it is often the interplay between several physical and-in certain cases-chemical parameters that determine its perception. One should realize that during sensory perception of food, people use all their senses. The main ones are
• Vision. Appearance is an important factor in determining the acceptability of a food product. It comprises color, shape, size, and gloss. It may affect texture perception in a subliminal manner. It is probable that when we see a food, our mind has a “texture program” as a reference, and this guides our oral processing and evaluation.
