Texture Profile Analysis Calculator

Fracturability is only populated by the calculator when the second-cycle peak force drops below 80% of the first-cycle peak force, which is meant to signal a genuine structural break point in the first compression. A sample that deforms smoothly without a sharp break, even a firm one, correctly shows fracturability as 0 rather than a misleading value, since there's no distinct fracture point for that parameter to describe.

Gumminess (hardness times cohesiveness) describes the energy needed to break a semi-solid food down to a swallowable consistency, and it doesn't need springiness because semi-solids like pudding don't meaningfully rebound between bites. Chewiness (gumminess times springiness) extends that same idea to solid foods where elastic recovery between chews also affects how much total work it takes to swallow, which is why the calculator multiplies in the extra springiness term only for chewiness.

Cohesiveness measures how much internal structure survives the first compression by comparing the total work, the area under the force-distance curve, needed in the second compression to the first — a food that falls apart loses most of its resistance and shows low cohesiveness. Springiness instead measures a purely geometric recovery, how far the sample bounces back in height between cycles, capturing elastic rebound independently of how much force or work that rebound involves.

Strain percentage, the compression distance divided by original sample height, shows how far you actually compressed the sample relative to its size, which matters because TPA parameters like hardness are only comparable between samples tested at similar strain levels. Two samples compressed to very different strain percentages can't be fairly compared on hardness or cohesiveness alone, since compressing further generally increases measured force regardless of the underlying texture.