Food texture: pleasure and pain.

Food texture provides sensory signals to consumers. Most of these signals stimulate responses from consumers, both good and bad, because of the expected pleasure - from creamy puddings and ice cream to crispy crackers and snacks. One critical role that texture plays in the success of products is its indication of the freshness and stability of the food product. The mechanical properties of food texture, such as hardness, cohesiveness, crispness, crunchiness, and denseness, are easy indicators of a product's freshness and wholesomeness. Although texture is often considered to be secondary to flavor in evaluating a product's success and acceptability, texture will tip the scales for the consumer, if the texture does not meet the consumer's expectation. Two case studies demonstrate the different texture properties of foods, how they function to generate consumer likes and dislikes, and how texture is key in determining food staleness versus freshness.