Cutting forces in foods: experimental measurements Original Research Article

Investigations into parameters affecting cutting forces in foods were undertaken to identify basic trends such as the relationship of cutting forces to cutting speeds and food temperatures. A simple plain blade was used to cut three typical foodstuffs (cheese, bacon and beef) at three feed speeds and three temperatures. After each cut the blade was passed through the product a second time to measure forces indicative of friction on the sides of the blade. Cutting forces for cheese decreased with increasing temperature and increased with cutting speed. The relatively homogeneous nature of the samples resulted in consistent and repeatable measurements. For bacon, variable salt content gave rise to different ice contents and thus hardnesses in samples at the same ‘frozen’ temperatures. Layers of fat and muscle boundaries also produced marked deviations from the average forces. Force results were therefore scattered but increased with decreasing temperature. The effect of cutting speed was not consistent for all forces, but higher speeds generally produced higher forces. For beef, there was a marked difference between frozen and unfrozen samples but little difference between samples at different unfrozen temperatures. In unfrozen samples, cutting speed had little effect on forces, whereas faster cutting speeds produced higher forces in frozen samples. The proportion of total cutting forces made up by friction was found to be consistent over all temperatures and speeds for cheese and bacon, but markedly higher in the frozen beef samples compared to the unfrozen samples.