UQ-led Trailblazer develops texture toolkit for food and beverage R&D

The Australia’s Food and Beverage Accelerator (FaBA) Trailblazer has developed a texture toolkit that they say can assist food companies with “product renovation”.

According to a statement from the University of Queensland – which leads FABA – on Thursday, the FaBA Texture Library Toolkit can help food and beverage developers understand and adjust a product’s textural attributes.

“The aim is to look at the sensory properties, flavours and textures of a product already in market and how it could be changed to make it more appealing,” said UQ flavour chemist Professor Heather Smyth.

“We have a fully qualified sensory panel to provide feedback and advise how the product compares to competitors in the market.

“Texture is complicated but we can help to reduce the complexity by working with our sensory panel and businesses to help improve products for consumers.” 

The university said it recently worked with plant-based meat company v2food to help it “assess its in-house work on improving the texture of its burgers” using the toolkit.

According to Dr Lisa Ronquest-Ross, Chief Science Officer at v2food and a UQ Adjunct Associate Professor, it helped the company avoid time-consuming and costly validation testing during R&D.

“Some solutions have been simple to implement, and we can also explore more complex formulation changes with FaBA,” she added.

FaBA is one of six initiatives funded under the federal government’s four-year Trailblazer program, which links university researchers with industry partners on commercial projects.

Picture: credit v2food

Further reading

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