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A child bites into a peach experiencing a number of sensations including sweetness, juiciness, and a variety of textures, which together constitute what researchers call mouthfeel.

Mouthfeel refers to the physical sensations in the mouth caused by food or drink, as distinct from taste. It is a fundamental sensory attribute which, along with taste and smell, determines the overall flavor of a food item.^[1][2] Mouthfeel is also sometimes referred to as texture.^[2]

It is used in many areas related to the testing and evaluating of foodstuffs, such as wine-tasting and food rheology.^[3] It is evaluated from initial perception on the palate, to first bite, through mastication to swallowing and aftertaste. In wine-tasting, for example, mouthfeel is usually used with a modifier (big, sweet, tannic, chewy, etc.) to the general sensation of the wine in the mouth.^[4]

Mouthfeel is often related to a product's water activity—hard or crisp products having lower water activities and soft products having intermediate to high water activities.^[5]

Qualities perceived

• Cohesiveness: Degree to which the sample deforms before rupturing when biting with molars.


• Density: Compactness of cross section of the sample after biting completely through with the molars.


• Dryness: Degree to which the sample feels dry in the mouth.


• Exquisiteness: Perceived quality of the item in question


• Fracturability: Force with which the sample crumbles, cracks or shatters. Fracturability encompasses crumbliness, crispiness, crunchiness and brittleness.


• Graininess: Degree to which a sample contains small grainy particles.


• Gumminess: Energy required to disintegrate a semi-solid food to a state ready for swallowing.


• Hardness: Force required to deform the product to a given distance, i.e., force to compress between molars, bite through with incisors, compress between tongue and palate.


• Heaviness: Weight of product perceived when first placed on tongue.


• Moisture absorption: Amount of saliva absorbed by product.


• Moisture release: Amount of wetness/juiciness released from sample.


• Mouthcoating: Type and degree of coating in the mouth after mastication (for example, fat/oil).


• Roughness: Degree of abrasiveness of product's surface perceived by the tongue.


• Slipperiness: Degree to which the product slides over the tongue.


• Smoothness: Absence of any particles, lumps, bumps, etc., in the product.


• Uniformity: Degree to which the sample is even throughout; homogeneity.


• Uniformity of bite: Evenness of force through bite.


• Uniformity of chew: Degree to which the chewing characteristics of the product are even throughout mastication.


• 
  Viscosity: Force required to draw a liquid from a spoon over the tongue.


• Wetness: Amount of moisture perceived on product's surface.

See also

• Food


• Texture


• Umami


• Wine tasting

References

Further reading

• Dollase, Jürgen, Geschmacksschule [engl.: Tasting School], 2005 Tre Tori, Wiesbaden, Germany (ISBN 3937963200). German-language textbook by a renowned food critic covering some, but not all of the above mentionend properties/mouthfeelings.

• 
  Stokes, Jason R.; Boehm, Michael W.; Baier, Stefan K. (August 2013). "Oral processing, texture and mouthfeel: From rheology to tribology and beyond". Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science. 18 (4): 349–359. doi:10.1016/j.cocis.2013.04.010 . 
  

External links

• Snack Foods and Water Activity