Many factors determine the acceptability of foods to the human palate. One is texture – actually, a sub-component of overall ‘mouth feel’. We don’t think too much about food texture – but it may be more important than we assume…
Perhaps nowhere does percieved texture matter so much as in a diner’s
evaluation of the seemingly simple, rustic appeal of a classic
cheese pull to a perfect grilled cheese sandwich!
Think or any dish you love. Where on your list of conscious evaluation points does ‘texture’ come in? Probably not very high. But bite into it and ‘mouth feel’ is front and centre!
More important than we thought
“Texture is very complimentary to a lot of the healthy things,” says Rob Ritchie, Senior VP for food and industrial ingredients at Ingredion, a provider of ‘healthy’ commercial food additives. “We think there’s untapped market there that we’re going to continue to grow upon.”
He stresses that texture is one of the most important measures to consider, when cooking. In fact, texture can impact how quickly people eat, how full they feel, how they perceive the food’s nutri-tional value and their overall satisfaction. More than 50 percent of consumers would reject a food product if they didn’t like the texture, Ingredion fund in a study.
Some insights…
Citing data from Innova Market Insight, Ingredion noted that 84 percent of consumers associate light texture with healthier options.
Texture is so powerful, other figures indicated, that descriptions on a product’s label can drive up to 70 percent of the consumer’s preference for a product.
“In baked goods, using resistant starches — those that are not easily broken down by enzymes in the body and minimally absorbed during digestion — can help achieve a healthier offering while still preserving the texture of traditional high-carb items such as bread, bagels, or muffins,” Ingredion sources told Food Dive.
In February, Ingredion said it was spending over $100 million to produce a greater rose of healthy texture-based ingredients while providing additional flexibility to new offerings.
My take
The powerful stigma surrounding food additives has long coloured folks’ attitudes about processed foods. it’s recently been suggested that processed foods aren’t going away. In fact, current estimates place processed foods as an overall classification at 76 percent of the edibles on American tables already. And that number is still increasing.
I have to agree – to some degree, anyway – with observers who say making processed foods healthier is the only real way to combat the ills the current generation of such products is wreaking on Western consumers.
We’ll Be curious to see where the interest in developing healthier additives takes the processed food industry in the future!
~ Maggie J.