Comrade

Texture is a very important character of every food we eat or drink. To many people, it is even more important than taste! Think of all the ways we describe a food’s texture. The students in the class could probably come up with twenty or more words just to describe the foods in their lunchboxes. "Crunchy, chewy, crispy, juicy, squashy, runny, solid, hard, soft, soggy, firm, creamy, fatty" and so on.
The components and ingredients within foods plus the processes they go through determines their texture. Take the example of making a fruit smoothie, which is easy to make at home in a blender and found on many supermarket shelves. Depending on the type of fruit, how pulpy and pureed the fruit is and how much water is in there will determine how thick the final smoothie is. Most commercial products proudly claim to contain only fruit (and water), so all the texture comes from the fruit and the process. Different smoothies can vary in their thickness. If one is so thick that it requires a spoon to eat, then it is really more of a soft-solid type product than a drink. amples of manufactured textured products
Texture is so important in our perception of foods that if we try to copy a food then we need to get the texture absolutely right, even if not the flavour. The most common example of this in the case of meat analogues, alternatives made to replace meat, which are eaten by both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. One example is a product called textured vegetable protein (TVP) made from soya beans. It has the fibrous texture of meat but a totally bland flavour. Because it is produced from soya beans, it has a good protein content and amino acid profile. Its bland texture also means that it makes a good bulking ingredient because it is less expensive than meat.
Quorn is another product you may have seen or tried. It has the texture of chicken but is actually a myco-protein or a tiny fungus grown through a fermentation process. It has no flavour of its own but like