CONCLUSION
A Kramer shear cell has been selected by comparison of different testing
devices as the most suited one to evidence mechanical and acoustic behaviors
and to highlight differences between flakes samples from commercial brands.
The advantages of studying the flakes in bulk rather than alone have been
shown in terms of measurement reliability. Relationships were found between
acoustic, mechanical measurements and sensory results. Crispness is linked
to mechanical properties measured during compression, but this trend is not
sufficient to classify samples and take into account all sensory attributes.
Acoustic signals in the temporal domain have been shown to be more efficient
for discriminating flakes in a way similar to sensory analysis.
This measuring device can now be employed to test model cornflakes,
processed at laboratory scale, for assessing their sensory properties