Whether fresh or processed, texture is an important indicator when assessing the quality of fruit and vegetables. Customers expect products that deliver on texture as well as taste e.g. overripe produce is unlikely to be purchased.
Fruit and vegetables contain a wide and varying range of tissue types, from complex leafy structures to inhomogeneous berries and fleshy fruits, to homogeneous tubers and root vegetables.
The same fruit or vegetable can be consumed raw or cooked, while different varieties and stages of maturity will result in different physical properties.
Texture evaluation can be performed on both fresh fruit and vegetables and those that have gone through post-harvest processing and treatment procedures.
Mecmesin texture analyzers are used to precisely quantify the textural characteristics of fruit and vegetables, including bruising potential, crispiness, firmness, maturity tenderness and ripeness, skin rupture force, skin toughness, and bioyield and stringiness (tailing).
Mecmesin also offers tenderometers to determine the harvest maturity of fresh peas.
Texture measurements provide the fresh produce sector with objective means to put numbers to very subjective characteristics, ensuring consumers experience the expected textural properties, whether that means crunchy apples, juicy tomatoes, or succulent oranges...
As well as texture our versatile products can also be used to control the quality of fresh produce packaging e.g. crush and fold strength of corrugated packaging.
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