Texture and Mouthfeel – What are they, and why do they matter?

As the food industry evolves, new trends and consumer demands emerge, introducing new complexities to formulation. The search for cleaner, healthier and more sustainable foods is changing the way to approach food formulations – so having a comprehensive understanding of the overall sensory experience is now front and centre. This is where understanding the science of taste, including texture and mouthfeel, becomes crucial.

But what exactly are texture and mouthfeel, and why should it matter to us?

To help answer those questions, Tate & Lyle’s Sensory Director, Marcia Petit, looks into its specifics and how mouthfeel can influence our attitudes towards certain foods in the article below.

 

Getting on your nerves

We all know that taste is the main reason we gravitate toward certain foods or drinks. But beyond flavour, mouthfeel plays a starring role in building taste. Mouthfeel is the texture and sensations you experience when consuming food and beverages. This includes how food looks, tastes, sounds and feels in your mouth

It is one key reason we either accept or reject what we eat. In summary, mouthfeel , alongside flavour, creates the full experience of eating, impacting not just how food tastes, but how it feels in our mouths – critical factors for keeping consumers happy.

“Mouthfeel is the texture and sensations you experience when consuming food and beverages. This includes how food looks, tastes, sounds and feels in your mouth”

Consider the experience of eating a mousse. It’s not just the taste but the whole sensory package. From the way it looks so light and fluffy, to the soft sound it makes as you dig in, and that delicate, airy texture that melts on your tongue. That’s mouthfeel in action – a complex, multisensory experience that turns eating into something much more.

 

So, what’s happening in our brains when about it comes to mouthfeel?

Well, it’s not just about our taste buds. When we eat, taste receptors in our mouth pick up on taste, whilst nerve cells allow the perception of touch and temperature, as well as help our teeth gauge how crunchy or chewy something is. All of this data rushes to our brain’s somatosensory cortex in an instant, helping us decide whether we are enjoying what we’re eating.

 

The accepted understanding

While it seems straightforward, there is a lot of science behind the way we perceive mouthfeel – besides tactile sensations, other senses, such as sight and sound, also play an important role.

Take, for example, a study conducted by Professor Charles Spence¹ in his role as Head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at Oxford University. He found that a range of sensory factors could change how we perceive a product’s mouthfeel. In one experiment, participants ate Pringles while wearing headphones that amplified the sound of crunching. By increasing the volume of the sound of crunch, participants believed the potato chips were 15% crunchier and fresher. The research formed part of Professor Spence’s work which saw him awarded the Nobel Prize for Nutrition.

So, it isn’t just the oral and tactile sensations, it’s also sound and appearance which can influence our perceptions of texture and mouthfeel.

 

Revolutionise without compromise

For food manufacturers, therefore, mouthfeel presents challenges, but also an opportunity to play on the entire sensory spectrum to help influence consumer perception of products by altering their texture, appearance, taste or sound.

This should be at the forefront of manufacturers’ minds when it comes to reformulating products. At Tate & Lyle our team have identified three key opportunity areas for mouthfeel formulation, which we’ll be exploring in this series of articles: Optimise, Reformulate and Innovate.

One great example in Optimise involves a customer who wanted to reduce the fat content in their mayonnaise. Lowering fat content is great for health and cost savings, but it can often come at the expense of mouthfeel.

So, our scientists worked with the customer to reformulate recipes aiming at fat reduction, looking at formulation adjustments, such as a change of emulsifier or addition of a starch, to keep delivering the mouthfeel consumers love.

We were able to find a solution for emulsified sauces more broadly, which could reduce costs by up to 30%, all while keeping the product marketable and delicious, by introducing MERIGEL® Starch, and STAMIST® Starch. This ultimately led to us delivering a range of recipes, allowing for a choice of different positioning options in the market that all achieved a comparable taste, texture and mouthfeel experience. This included salad creams with different fat levels (30%, 40% and 50% less fat) and swapping out egg yolk for STAMIST® Starch to help emulsify.

This is just one example – our team has worked across a host of different formulations to help emulsify products including with a range of ingredient solutions.

Another example, now in the Reformulatespace, can be seen in reformulation efforts to create products that meet certain dietary requirements like eliminating lactose or gluten, while keeping the taste experience loved by consumers. We have helped a customer to reformulate their crackers into a gluten-free version that still delivered that perfect, satisfying crunch people crave from their snacks.

Removing gluten, which naturally creates a light and crispy texture in traditional wheat-based crackers, meant we had to dig deep into sensory science. By mapping consumer preferences and translating their sensory language into specific textural attributes – like crispiness and crunchiness – we identified the ideal combination of ingredients. Our solution included the naturally gluten-free Artesa® 10 chickpea flour, which, when paired with our XPAND’R® starch, provided the right structure and mouthfeel. This not only met the challenge of creating a delicious gluten-free product but also aligned with the growing consumer demand for healthier, plant-based foods.

We’ll be covering examples of how we are elevating textures and developing new mouthfeel experiences in the Elevate space in our upcoming articles.

 

Making an impact

Today, with concerns about food prices and the increase in the cost of living high on the public agenda, creating more cost-effective formulations that don’t compromise on quality is essential. At Tate & Lyle, we’re all about helping manufacturers deliver products that are not only accessible but still pack the same punch in taste and texture.

We are also now in a period of change when it comes to consumer perception and regulations around food ingredient labels, with many manufacturers considering whether they can reformulate to make their products with cleaner labels- and mouthfeel and its importance will come under sharper consideration.

At Tate & Lyle, we offer ingredient solutions to formulate and reformulate a range of products ensuring a marvellous mouthfeel. Get in touch to understand how we can help.

We will be examining mouthfeel through different angles over the coming months and can’t wait to share more insights in the very near future- stay tuned!

References: 1- "The Role of Auditory Cues in Modulating the Perceived Crispness and Staleness of Potato Chips," Massimiliano Zampini and Charles Spence,Journal of Sensory Studies, vol. 19, October 2004, pp. 347-63.