Suitability of single-compression and TPA tests to determine adhesiveness in solid and semisolid foods

Single compression tests were applied to carrageenan plus locust bean gum m odel gels (1:1) without sucrose and with 40% added sucrose, and two commerc ial samples of quince jelly containing high levels of sucrose (55 and 72 de grees Brix), The samples were glued to the main platform of the texturomete r. The tests were performed rep to two different levels of compression. Neg ative area (A(adh)), the time that the samples remained adhering to the pro be (t(adh)), and maximum negative force (F-max) during the decompression st roke were determined. All the parameter values for the commercial samples w ere greater than those for the model systems. A(adh) and F-max were good in dices of adhesiveness. The highest discriminative capacity in detecting suc rose levels of these two parameters was obtained at a low degree of compres sion; this could be because the samples had not suffered damage to their in ternal structure. Since the samples had high instantaneous recoverable spri nginess, the application of automated TPA proved inappropriate for obtainin g a measurement of adhesiveness.