Determination of the Rheological Properties of Mayonnaise

The instrument for determination the texture with air puff’s Foodtexture Puff Device (FPD) is a new device that yields contactless, fast, easy and non-destructive rheological measurements of food products. The instrument applies a controlled air pulse to the surface of a food product, while a laser distance sensor measures the deformation. This approach can be considered as an alternative method for more fundamental rheological properties like storage and loss module, viscosity, elasticity. The applicability of FPD for determination the rheological properties of mayonnaise was comparatively evaluated in relation to texture analyzer and rheometer. Eight commercial mayonnaise-type products and three types of lab made mayonnaise were analyzed with the FPD, texture analyzer (spreadability rig) and the rheometer (storage and loss module from a frequency sweep). All three instruments are tested at three different selected temperatures. The correlation between the results from different instruments was determined. The FPD was able to determine the emulsion firmness with a low standard deviation and good temperature sensitivity. In addition, it was established that the maximum deformation created by the FPD was strongly correlated to the firmness of the emulsions as determined by texture analyzer, and to the storage module of the frequency sweep, determined by rheometer. It was, therefore, concluded that the FPD is well suited and applicable for measuring the firmness of mayonnaises. It is a flexible instrument that is applicable in an industrial environment due to its punctual analyses of rheological characteristics and its ease of use.