Potato chips, popcorn, puffed corn curls, and saltines were equilibrated
to various water activities (a,) over saturated salt solutions.
Sensoryp anelsd eterminedt he crispnessa nd textural hedonicq uality
of the humidified products by the magnitude estimation technique
coupled to a verbal concept scale. Critical water activities
(a,), where the products became organoleptically unacceptable,
generally fell in the 0.35-0.50 a, range. Instron analyses showed
that the force-deformation curve changed distinctly near the a,
for saltines and puffed corn curls, while the curve changed more
graduallyw ith increasinga , for popcorn. Potato chipsd id not produce
a consistently shaped force-deformation curve. The cohesiveness
value of popcorn was found to be a good indicator of its
sensory crispness.