![Eating a Georgia peach](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Eating_a_Georgia_peach.jpg)
Mouthfeel refers to the
physical sensations
The sensory nervous system is a part of the nervous system responsible for processing sensory information. A sensory system consists of sensory neurons (including the sensory receptor cells), neural pathways, and parts of the brain involved i ...
in the mouth caused by
food
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...
or
drink, making it distinct from
taste
The gustatory system or sense of taste is the sensory system that is partially responsible for the perception of taste (flavor). Taste is the perception produced or stimulated when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with taste receptor ...
. It is a fundamental sensory attribute which, along with taste and
smell, determines the overall
flavor
Flavor or flavour is either the sensory perception of taste or smell, or a flavoring in food that produces such perception.
Flavor or flavour may also refer to:
Science
*Flavors (programming language), an early object-oriented extension to Lis ...
of a food item.
Mouthfeel is also sometimes referred to as texture.
[
It is used in many areas related to the testing and evaluating of foodstuffs, such as ]wine-tasting
Wine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, a more formalized methodology has slowly become established from the 14th century onward. Modern, professional w ...
and food rheology
Food rheology is the study of the rheological properties of food, that is, the consistency and flow of food under tightly specified conditions.
The consistency, degree of fluidity, and other mechanical properties are important in understandi ...
. It is evaluated from initial perception on the palate
The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity.
A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separ ...
, to first bite
Biting is a common zoological behavior involving the active, rapid closing of the jaw around an object. This behavior is found in toothed animals such as mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish, but can also exist in arthropods. Myocytic co ...
, through chewing
Chewing or mastication is the process by which food is crushed and ground by teeth. It is the first step of digestion, and it increases the surface area of foods to allow a more efficient break down by enzymes. During the mastication process, th ...
to swallowing and aftertaste
Aftertaste is the taste intensity of a food or beverage that is perceived immediately after that food or beverage is removed from the mouth. The aftertastes of different foods and beverages can vary by intensity and over time, but the unifying f ...
. In wine-tasting, for example, mouthfeel is usually used with a modifier (big, sweet, tannic, chewy, etc.) to the general sensation of the wine in the mouth. Research indicates texture and mouthfeel can also influence satiety with the effect of viscosity
The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its resistance to deformation at a given rate. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of "thickness": for example, syrup has a higher viscosity than water.
Viscosity quantifies the inte ...
most significant.
Mouthfeel is often related to a product's water activity
Water activity (''aw'') is the partial vapor pressure of water in a solution divided by the standard state partial vapor pressure of water. In the field of food science, the standard state is most often defined as pure water at the same tempe ...
—hard or crisp products having lower water activities and soft products having intermediate to high water activities.
Qualities perceived
* Chewiness: The sensation of sustained, elastic resistance from food while it is chewed.
*Cohesiveness: Degree to which the sample deforms before rupturing when biting with molars
The molars or molar teeth are large, flat teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammals. They are used primarily to grind food during chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, ''molaris dens'', meaning "millstone to ...
.
* Crunchiness
Crunchiness is the sensation of muffled grinding of a foodstuff. Crunchiness differs from crispness in that a crisp item is quickly atomized, while a crunchy one offers sustained, granular resistance to jaw action. While crispness is difficult t ...
: The audible grinding of a food when it is chewed.
*Density: Compactness of cross section of the sample after biting completely through with the molars.
* Dryness: Degree to which the sample feels dry in the mouth.
* Exquisiteness: Perceived quality of the item in question.
* Fracturability: Force
In physics, a force is an influence that can change the motion of an object. A force can cause an object with mass to change its velocity (e.g. moving from a state of rest), i.e., to accelerate. Force can also be described intuitively as a p ...
with which the sample crumbles, cracks or shatters. Fracturability encompasses crumbliness, crispiness
Crispiness or crispness is one of the most common food texture attributes. Crispiness refers to a hard food that emits a sound upon fracturing. Foods described as crisp tend not to show signs of deformation prior to fracture. Crispiness and crunc ...
, crunchiness and brittle
A material is brittle if, when subjected to stress, it fractures with little elastic deformation and without significant plastic deformation. Brittle materials absorb relatively little energy prior to fracture, even those of high strength. Br ...
ness.
* Graininess: Degree to which a sample contains small grainy particles.
* Gummi
Gummies, gummi candies, gummy candies, or jelly sweets are a broad category of gelatin-based chewable sweets. Gummi bears, Sour Patch Kids, and Jelly Babies are widely popular and are a well-known part of the sweets industry. Gummies are availab ...
ness: Energy
In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...
required to disintegrate a semi-solid food to a state ready for swallowing.
* Hardness: Force required to deform the product to a given distance, i.e., force to compress between molars, bite through with incisors, compress between tongue and palate.
* Heaviness: Weight
In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity.
Some standard textbooks define weight as a Euclidean vector, vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weigh ...
of product perceived when first placed on tongue.
* Moisture absorption: Amount of saliva
Saliva (commonly referred to as spit) is an extracellular fluid produced and secreted by salivary glands in the mouth. In humans, saliva is around 99% water, plus electrolytes, mucus, white blood cells, epithelial cells (from which DNA can be ...
absorbed by product.
* Moisture release: Amount of wetness/juiciness released from sample.
* Mouthcoating: Type and degree of coating in the mouth after mastication (for example, fat
In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food.
The term often refers specifically to triglycerides (triple est ...
/oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
).
* Roughness: Degree of abrasive
An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away by friction. While finishing a material often means polishing it to gain a smooth, reflec ...
ness of product's surface perceived by the tongue.
* Slipperiness: Degree to which the product slides over the tongue.
* Smoothness: Absence of any particles, lumps, bumps, etc., in the product.
* Uniformity: Degree to which the sample is even throughout; homogeneity
Homogeneity and heterogeneity are concepts often used in the sciences and statistics relating to the Uniformity (chemistry), uniformity of a Chemical substance, substance or organism. A material or image that is homogeneous is uniform in compos ...
.
* Uniformity of bite: Evenness of force through bite.
* Uniformity of chew: Degree to which the chewing characteristics of the product are even throughout mastication.
* Viscosity
The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its resistance to deformation at a given rate. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of "thickness": for example, syrup has a higher viscosity than water.
Viscosity quantifies the inte ...
: Force required to draw a liquid from a spoon over the tongue.
* Wetness: Amount of moisture perceived on product's surface.
See also
*Food
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...
* Psychorheology
*Texture
Texture may refer to:
Science and technology
* Surface texture, the texture means smoothness, roughness, or bumpiness of the surface of an object
* Texture (roads), road surface characteristics with waves shorter than road roughness
* Texture ...
*Umami
Umami ( from ja, 旨味 ), or savoriness, is one of the five basic tastes. It has been described as savory and is characteristic of broths and cooked meats.
People taste umami through taste receptors that typically respond to glutamates and ...
*Wine tasting
Wine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, a more formalized methodology has slowly become established from the 14th century onward. Modern, professional w ...
*Q. texture
In Taiwan, Q () is a culinary term for the ideal texture of many foods, such as noodles or boba, and fish balls and fish cakes. Sometimes translated as "chewy", the texture has been described as "The Asian version of al-dente ..soft but not mus ...
References
Further reading
* Dollase, Jürgen, ''Geschmacksschule ngl.: Tasting School', 2005 Tre Tori, Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
, Germany (). German-language textbook by a renowned food critic covering some, but not all of the above mentionend properties/mouthfeelings.
*{{cite journal, last1=Stokes, first1=Jason R., last2=Boehm, first2=Michael W., last3=Baier, first3=Stefan K., title=Oral processing, texture and mouthfeel: From rheology to tribology and beyond, journal=Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science, date=August 2013, volume=18, issue=4, pages=349–359, doi=10.1016/j.cocis.2013.04.010, doi-access=free
External links
Snack Foods and Water Activity
Food science
Gustatory system
Sensory systems
Wine tasting
Characteristics of cheese