A sensory application involves mechanical, tactile, visual and auditory perception in order to create a sensation. Previous studies illustrated that there is no direct sensor for the texture, but the tactile receptors of the skin may be the responsible body of the sensation. Meanwhile, determining the attribute of the sensed texture is dependent on the previous experiences and expectations from a food sample as well as the other cues that delivered from the other collaborative senses: visual (wobbly, jelly, liquid and etc.), non-oral tactile (touching to the food by hand, or using cutlery or chopsticks to manipulate the food) and auditory (hearing the crunchy sound while chewing). Understanding what the consumer senses in terms of texture can be vital in some cases. The most common problem is the patients of dysphagia (swallowing and oro-function disorders), who are in need of special textured foods not to get choked while eating. Similarly, babies need special texture formulae since the undeveloped dental status. The industry has been seeking the right conditions for controlling of the texture such as labeling the foods in the supermarket by giving a standard numbering to the foods from very soft to very hard, so the special group consumers can select the right consistency that was advised from the doctors. Additionally finding a correlation between tactile sensors on fingers and the oral surfaces can give a model for predicting the needed texture, where we can estimate the consistency of the food only by touching.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Sensory, Texture, Perception, Sensation, Tactile
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