Mouthfeel

For the album, see Mouthfeel (album).

Mouthfeel refers to the physical sensations in the mouth caused by food or drink, making it distinct from taste. It is a fundamental sensory attribute which, along with taste and smell, determines the overall flavor of a food item.^[1][2] Mouthfeel is also sometimes referred to as texture.^[2]

A child bites into a watermelon, experiencing mouthfeel sensations such as juiciness

It is used in many areas related to the testing and evaluating of foodstuffs, such as wine-tasting and food rheology.^[3] It is evaluated from initial perception on the palate to first bite, through chewing to swallowing and aftertaste. 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.^[4] Research indicates texture and mouthfeel can also influence satiety with the effect of viscosity most significant.^[5]

Mouthfeel is often related to a product's water activity—hard or crisp products having lower water activities and soft products having intermediate to high water activities.^[6]

Qualities perceived

• Chewiness: The sensation of sustained, elastic resistance from food while it is chewed
• Cohesiveness: The degree to which the sample deforms before rupturing when biting with molars
• Crunchiness: The audible grinding of a food when it is chewed
• Density: The compactness of cross section of the sample after biting completely through with the molars
• Dryness: The degree to which the sample feels dry in the mouth^[7]
• Exquisiteness: The perceived quality of the item in question
• Fracturability: The force with which the sample crumbles, cracks or shatters – Fracturability encompasses crumbliness, crispiness, crunchiness and brittleness.
• Graininess: The degree to which a sample contains small grainy particles
• Gumminess: The energy required to disintegrate a semi-solid food to a state ready for swallowing
• Hardness: The 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: The weight of product perceived when first placed on tongue
• Juiciness
• Moisture absorption: The amount of saliva absorbed by product
• Moisture release: The amount of wetness/juiciness released from sample
• Mouthcoating: The type and degree of coating in the mouth after mastication (for example, fat/oil)^[8]
• Roughness: The degree of abrasiveness of product's surface perceived by the tongue
• Slipperiness: The degree to which the product slides over the tongue
• Smoothness: The absence of any particles, lumps, bumps, etc., in the product
• Tenderness: The opposite of hardness; ease of chewing
• Uniformity: The degree to which the sample is even throughout or the homogeneity of the sample
• Uniformity of bite: The evenness of force throughout the bite
• Uniformity of chew: The degree to which the chewing characteristics of the product are even throughout mastication
• Viscosity: The force required to draw a liquid from a spoon over the tongue
• Wetness: The amount of moisture perceived on product's surface

See also

• Food
• Psychorheology
• Umami
• Wine tasting
• Q. texture

References

1. Mouritsen, Ole G.; Styrbæk, Klavs (2017). Mouthfeel: How Texture Makes Taste. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-54324-8.
2. Guinard, Jean-Xavier; Mazzucchelli, Rossella (July 1996). "The sensory perception of texture and mouthfeel". Trends in Food Science & Technology. 7 (7): 213–219. doi:10.1016/0924-2244(96)10025-X.
3. Goodwin, Lindsey (26 December 2017). "Mouthfeel Defined". The Spruce. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
4. Dollase, Jürgen (2005). Geschmacksschule (in German). Wiesbaden, Germany: Tre Torri Verlag. ISBN 978-3-937963-20-4.
5. Stribiţcaia, Ecaterina; Evans, Charlotte E. L.; Gibbons, Catherine; Blundell, John; Sarkar, Anwesha (2020-07-31). "Food texture influences on satiety: systematic review and meta-analysis". Scientific Reports. 10 (1): 12929. Bibcode:2020NatSR..1012929S. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-69504-y. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 7395742. PMID 32737349.
6. Katz, E. E.; Labuza, T. P. (March 1981). "Effect of Water Activity on the Sensory Crispness and Mechanical Deformation of Snack Food Products". Journal of Food Science. 46 (2): 403–409. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2621.1981.tb04871.x.
7. Marcus, Jacqueline B. (2019). Aging, nutrition and taste: nutrition, food science and culinary perspectives for aging tastefully. London; San Diego: Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-813527-3. OCLC 1105931242.
8. Agorastos, Georgios; van Halsema, Emo; Bast, Aalt; Klosse, Peter (2023-03-01). "On the importance of saliva in mouthfeel sensations". International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science. 31: 100667. doi:10.1016/j.ijgfs.2023.100667. ISSN 1878-450X.

Further reading

• Dollase, Jürgen, Geschmacksschule [engl.: Tasting School], 2005 Tre Tori, Wiesbaden, Germany (ISBN 3937963200). German-language textbook by a renowned food critic covering some, but not all of the above mentionend properties/mouthfeelings.
• Stokes, Jason R.; Boehm, Michael W.; Baier, Stefan K. (August 2013). "Oral processing, texture and mouthfeel: From rheology to tribology and beyond". Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science. 18 (4): 349–359. doi:10.1016/j.cocis.2013.04.010.

External links

• Snack Foods and Water Activity Archived 2013-04-13 at the Wayback Machine