Multi-Textured Foods

Freshly prepared foods may have more than one texture attribute in a single food. Such foods are called multi‐textured foods. The challenges of commercially manufacturing multi‐textured foods are to keep the freshly created textures over a long period of time, retaining flavor characteristics and prevention of chemical and microbial degradation of the foods. It a great challenge to envision a multi‐textured food product that is shelf stable in the intermediate moisture range. The reasons why maintenance of freshly created textures is difficult are moisture and oil migration. Moisture migration detracts from desirable textures by altering their sensory properties. This chapter considers moisture migration, its kinetics and effects on physical state of foods, methods of measuring moisture transfer and strategies to delay such undesirable changes. It also discusses an exhaustive survey of the effects of water, water activity and its role in texture modification of multi‐textured foods and glass transition.