Objective and subjective measurement of the crispness of crisps from four potato varieties

Potato crisps were ranked in order of crispness by a taste panel. The crisps were then tested mechanically, using Weibull’s model for the analysis of the data. This showed that a crisper crisp breaks at a higher force. The speed of breakdown of the crisp during chewing is proportional to the Weibull modulus. The Weibull analysis enables the scattered data produced by a brittle material to be forced to conform to a linear model, and to be numerically comparable between tests. This is not possible with comparisons between taste panels, which can only compare ranking order.