Next target for food hydrocolloid studies: Texture design of foods using hydrocolloid technology

Texture is important in terms of both food palatability and the safety of eating. Recently, the importance of texture has been emphasized for the development of nursing-care foods, including dysphagia foods, in recent aged society, where the number of patients with mastication and swallowing difficulties is increasing. Texture design of these food products is now one of the most important tasks in the food industry in Japan. Texture of these food products should be optimized by modulating viscoelasticity using hydrocolloids so that they can easily transform to ‘ready-to-swallow’ bolus during oral processing. This article reviews the importance of texture as an essential attribute of foods and also the usefulness of hydrocolloids as an ingredient to modify and control food texture. The article also covers recent trials by the author’s research team on bolus rheology and in vivo acoustic analysis. The trials are to find some objective parameters describing the mastication and swallowing eases as an alternative to conventional bulk rheology and subjective sensory analysis.