Instrumental texture analysis on extruded snacks is widely applied, however there is no scientific consensus
about the test and probe types that can be correlated with the sensory texture of snacks. Eleven
commercial extruded snacks of different shapes were evaluated instrumentally using different probes
and sensorially through descriptive analysis. The snack texture was described using the attributes of
hardness, crispness, adhesiveness, fracturability and chewiness. Cylindrical snacks were described
through crispness and fracturability, pelleted and shell-shaped snacks by chewiness and ring-shaped
snacks by adhesiveness and hardness. Hardness and adhesiveness were correlated with a Warner–Bratzler
test using a ‘‘V’’ shape probe (r = 0.718 and r = 0.763, respectively), while fracturability and chewiness
were correlated with a Warner–Bratzler test using a guillotine (r = 0.776 and r = 0.662, respectively). The
fairly strong good correlations enable application of these instrumental tests as an indication of the sensory
texture of extruded snacks.
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