Dual-stage texture assessment for jelly and structured foods

Overview

This dual-stage texture assessment technology enables rapid, non-destructive quality evaluation of jelly and structured foods. During manufacturing, it tracks the evolving bulk mechanical response of the gelling material using motor current, rotational speed, and temperature signals. For finished products, it applies sessile-drop contact-angle measurements to assess surface wettability, water binding, and network development. Together, these complementary bulk and surface indicators provide fast batch-to-batch quality classification without relying solely on time-consuming destructive texture analysis.

Technical specifications

The method works in two complementary stages:

• In-process monitoring: Motor current, rotational speed, and temperature are captured during manufacture with minimal equipment modification and converted into an entropy-based process-history metric. A properly formed jelly reaches a characteristic cumulative entropy at the processing endpoint; consistent values across successful reference batches serve as a thermodynamic fingerprint of proper gel formation, while deviations indicate process or structural variation.
• Finished-product surface analysis: A portable contact-angle system measures sessile-drop contact angle and time-dependent spreading behavior. Finished batches with structure comparable to an approved reference batch should exhibit a similar surface response, providing an independent indicator of wettability and network development.

The approach has been tested on food products and grease lubricants. It will be calibrated against conventional texture analysis to predict firmness, gel strength, and pass/fail quality classification.

Technology readiness level

The technology is at an early proof-of-concept stage. A planned 3-month validation will test the dual-stage monitoring strategy during actual jelly manufacture, building libraries of entropy trajectories and endpoint ranges from successful reference batches, plus contact-angle and spreading signatures for approved texture states. These libraries will be benchmarked against reference texture-analysis results to establish repeatability, sensitivity, and pass/fail limits. Planned deliverables include validated procedures, automated data-processing tools, reference libraries, and plant-scale deployment guidance.