Tribo-rheology and sensory analysis of a dairy semi-solid

Tribology science is devoted on explaining the friction behavior of interacting surfaces in relative motion. Several tribological systems have been used to measure coefficient of friction (CoF) vs sliding speed of entrained food layer between two rubbing surfaces. These results can be correlated with fat-related attributes perceived during oral processing. This study aims to investigate the effect of starch, carrageenan and fat on the friction profile; flow behavior and particle size distribution. Friction curves were obtained for custards using a tribo-rheometer with a rotating metallic geometry rubbing the surface of 3 M tape with roughness similar to that depicted by human tongue. Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM) images of custard collected during friction experiment helped to explain the characteristics of tribological regimes. As expected, fat-containing samples depicted remarkably lower CoF than skim compositions (fat: 0.2 < CoF < 0.08 and skim: 0.6 < Co