ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews efforts to find a scientific basis for texture. It shows how sensory attributes of food and cosmetic texture can be predicted a priori from physical measurements. These physical properties would allow the systematic development of a cosmetic or food product for a desired texture. The chapter discusses attributes related to the sense of touch and briefly mentions attributes related to the sense of taste. It is concerned with variations of taste with changes in liquid viscosity. Using magnitude estimation, they showed that as the percentage of tomato solids increased from 0 to 2.6%, the perceived sweetness decreased substantially. Understanding the effect of insoluble tomato solids on sweetness necessitates the use of a different kind of psychophysical model than the tactile model used for evaluating thickness and smoothness. The new taste model must include factors such as sugar concentration, viscosity, and tomato solid concentration.
