On the Application of Chemometrics for the study of Acoustic-Mechanical properties of Crispy Bakery products

Crispness is a salient textural property for most fresh and dry food products; its loss, due to the adsorption of moisture is a major cause of rejection by consumer. The food structure and its mechanical properties are related to crispness by their capability to generate an appropriate sound and their ability to dampen or amplify this sound. The perception of crispness is a simultaneous response to mechanical and acoustic stimuli. By simulating these stimuli by means of a new acoustic-mechanical combined technique, useful information on structure of crispy product can be obtained; but new methods to interpret this information content are required, in order to integrate traditional techniques. Even if multivariate analysis has never been applied on combined acoustic-mechanical measurements, it appears ideal for studying this kind of data. Consequently, acoustic-mechanical properties of sliced toasted breads were analysed by means of chemometric tools, such as Principal Component Analysis and Discriminant Analysis. Final results proved that Chemometrics is able to extract relevant information and offer an easy approach for the interpretation of acoustic-mechanical parameters.