Texture of bread

Texture and eating quality are important properties of bread products and are different from one another.

The texture of bread must be even, close grained, soft and tender. In baking, dextrose sugar importantly aids the development of the fine bread texture.

Crumb softness or firmness is the texture property which has attracted most attention in bread assessment because of its close association with human perception of freshness.

It is well known that increasing the level of energy transferred to the dough during mixing increases bread volume and crumb softness.

Apart from that baker’s yeast elaborates a variety of enzymes that elaborate it to break down the carbohydrates in flour starch to produce sufficient carbon dioxide to give leavened bread its characteristic texture.

Texture may be estimated by the sense of touch against the cut surface of the bread loaf. Soft, silky and still with certain degree of firmness is considered to good texture.

A slack dough or too much final proofing will produce a bread having open crumb structure which will be soft to touch but will be  coarse. It is known as ‘wooly’.
Texture of bread

Food texture is an index of quality

Texture is also an important index of quality. It determines the identity of the food product and it is often cited as a reason for liking or not liking a food and an indicator of food quality rather than quantity.

Texture itself can be refers to those quality of a food that can be felt with the fingers, tongue, palate or teeth. Like appearance and flavor, texture is a food quality attribute which affects the total sensory experience enjoyed by the consumer.

It was suggested that a defect in the perceived texture of food would have an extremely negative impact on consumer’s hedonic responses to the product.

Texture is what makes a cookie crisp and chewy. This attribute is characterized by human sensations such as the snap of the product as it is crushed and ground between teeth, the feeling of the particle size shape and roughness.

Bread can become hard and stale on storage. Products like ice cream can become gritty due to precipitation of lactose and growth of ice crystal in the freezer temperature is allowed to fluctuate, allowing thawing and refreezing.

Texture also is an important quality attribute of frozen fruits and vegetable. Loss of tissue firmness, disruption of the cell membrane, and excessive softness are the major consequences to be avoided.

Low temperature and longtime pretreatment were useful in improving the texture of frozen vegetables by avoiding excessive softness.
Food texture is an index of quality 

Taste Sensitivity

Taste Sensitivity
People vary in their sensitivity to different tastes. Sensitivity depends on the length of time allowed to taste a substance.

Sweet and slat tastes are detected quickly (in less than a second), because they are detected by taste buds in the tip of the tongue, in addition, they are usually very soluble compounds.

Bitter compounds, on the other hand may take a full second to be detected because they are detected at the back of the tongue.

The taste may linger, producing a bitter aftertaste.

Sensitivity to a particular taste also depends on the concentration of the substance responsible for the taste.

The threshold concentration is defined as the concentration required for identification of a particular substance.

The threshold concentration may vary from person to a person: some people are more sensitive to a particular taste than others and therefore are able to detect it at a lower concentration.

Below a threshold concentration, a substance would not be identified but may affect the perception of another taste.

For example subthreshold salt levels increase perceived sweetness and decrease perceived acidity, whereas subthreshold sugar concentrations make a food taste less salty than it actually is.

Although it is not clear why, flavor enhancers such as MSG also affect taste sensitivity by intensifying a particular taste in a food.

Temperature of food also affects its flavor. Warm foods generally taste stronger and sweeter than cold foods. For example, melted ice cream tastes much sweeter than frozen ice cream.

There are two reasons for the effects of temperature on flavor. The volatility of substance is increased at higher temperatures, and so they smell stronger.

Taste bud receptivity also is an important factor. Taste buds are most receptive in the region between 68 and 86 degree F and so taste will be more intense in this temperature range.

Psychological factor also affect taste sensitivity and perception. Judgments about flavor are often influenced by preconceived ideas based on the appearance of the food or on previous experience with a similar food.

For example, strawberry flavored foods would be expected to be red. However, if colored green, because of the association of green foods with flavors such as lime, it would be difficult to identify the flavor as strawberry unless it was very strong.

Color intensity also affects flavor perception. A stronger color may also cause perception of a stronger flavor in a product, even of the stronger color is simply due to the addition of more food coloring.

Texture also can be misleading. A thicker product may be perceived as tasting richer or stronger simply because it is thicker and not because the thickening agent affects the flavor of the food.

Other psychological factors that may come into play when making judgments about the flavor of foods include time of day (for example, certain tastes are preferred at breakfast time), general sense of well being, health and previous reactions to a particular food or taste.
Taste Sensitivity

The Sensitivity of Taste

The Sensitivity of Taste
People vary in their sensitivity to different tastes. Sensitivity depends on the length of time allowed to taste a substance. Sweet and salt tastes are detected quickly, because they are detected by taste buds on the tip of the tongue; in addition, they are usually very soluble compounds. Bitter compounds, on the other hand, may take a full second to be detected because they are detected at the back of the tongue. The taste may linger, producing a bitter aftertaste.

Sensitivity to a particular taste also depends in the concentration of the substance responsible for the taste. The threshold concentration is defined as the concentration required for identification of a particular substance. The threshold concentration may vary from person to person; some people are more sensitive to a particular taste than others and are, therefore able to detect it at a lower concentration.

Temperature of a food also affects its flavor. Warm foods generally taste stronger and sweeter than cold foods. For example, melted ice cream tastes much sweeter than frozen ice cream. There are two reasons for the effects of temperature on flavor. The volatility of substances is increased at higher temperatures, and so they smell stronger. Taste bud receptivity is also an important factor. Taste buds are most receptive in the region between 68 and 86 degree F and so tastes will be more intense in this temperature range.

Psychological factors also affect taste sensitivity and perception. Judgments about flavor are often influenced by preconceived ideas based on the appearance of the food or on previous experience with a similar food. For example, strawberry flavored foods would be expected to be red. However if colored green, because of the association of green foods with flavors such as lime, it would be difficult to identify the flavors strawberry unless it was very strong.

Color intensity also may affect flavor perception. A stronger color may cause perception of a stronger flavor in a product, even if the stronger color is simply due to the addition of more food coloring.
The Sensitivity of Taste