Food Texture Science Experiment for Kids | America's Test Kitchen Kids

activity

Scientists have been exploring what makes foods crispy or crunchy for decades—now it’s your turn!

Print Activity

Prepare Ingredients

3 wide, thin, and crispy or crunchy snack foods, such as:

Potato chips

Kettle chips

Pringles potato crisps

Tortilla chips

Doritos chips

Saltines

Water crackers

Gather Equipment

Sheet of paper

Pencil

Digital kitchen scale

2

small paper or plastic cups, about 3 ounces each, both the same size

Pen with rounded cap or pencil with rounded eraser

Get Started!

Part 1: Listen

Scientists agree that crispy foods and crunchy foods sound different when we eat them. In the 1970s and 1980s, researchers at the University of Minnesota discovered that people describe foods that make higher-pitched sounds when they chew them as crispy and foods that make lower-pitched sounds when they chew them as crunchy. Examples of high-pitched sounds are squeaky sneakers on a basketball court, a kitten’s meow, and a mosquito’s buzz. Some low-pitched sounds are a lion’s roar, a car’s engine, and tuba music.

1

Make a prediction: Crispy and crunchy are two words that are often used interchangeably to describe food texture, but they actually mean different things. Which of your snack foods do you think are crispy? Which do you think are crunchy? Why do you think so?

2

Use sheet of paper and pencil to create a recording sheet for your results. Draw line down center of paper to create 2 columns. Label 1 column “Crispy” and second column “Crunchy.”

3

wide, thin, and crispy or crunchy snack foods

Observe your results: Find a quiet space. Eat 1 or 2 of each chip or cracker. As you chew, pay attention to what it sounds like: Does it sound crispy (higher pitched) or crunchy (lower pitched)? Based on your observations, write the name of each chip or cracker in the “Crispy” or “Crunchy” column on your sheet of paper.

Part 2: Measure

1

Before you begin, use a pencil to write the name of each chip or cracker on the back of your sheet of paper.

2

Set digital kitchen scale to measure ounces. Place 2 small paper or plastic cups upside down on scale. Lay single chip or cracker across cups (like a bridge). Press “tare” or “zero” button on scale. It should now show zero weight.

3

While an adult or friend watches scale to record reading, use pen cap or pencil eraser to gently press on center of chip or cracker. As slowly as you can, press down harder and harder until chip or cracker breaks. Record reading on scale when chip or cracker breaks next to its name on your paper. (If it takes A LOT of force to break a chip or cracker, you might max out how much force your scale can measure—record “max” as your data point for that food.)

4

Observe your results: Repeat test 3 times with each type of chip or cracker, recording readings on scale next to each chip or cracker’s name.

5

Look at the data you recorded on your sheet of paper: Which chips or crackers took the most force to break? Which chips or crackers took the least force to break? Did the foods that took the most force to break sound high pitched or low pitched? What other patterns did you notice?

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Food for Thought

The Big Ideas

Crispy foods sound higher pitched as we chew them while crunchy foods sound lower pitched.
Crispy foods tend to be thinner and more delicate. Crunchy foods are thicker and sturdier.
In general, it takes less force to bite through a crispy food than a crunchy food.

The Results

(Don’t read until you’ve completed the experiment!)
In the Recipe Lab, we noticed that crispy foods took less force to break and tended to be thinner and lighter. Crunchy foods took more force to break and were thicker and sturdier. Crispy foods sounded higher pitched when we ate them while crunchy foods sounded lower pitched. How about you?

According to scientists, crispy foods tend to be hard but delicate—they shatter easily, like a potato chip. Crunchy foods tend to be thicker and make a crushing noise when you chew them, like a tortilla chip or cracker. Whether we think a food is crispy or crunchy involves two of our senses: touch and hearing. The sound a food makes when we eat it has a big impact on what we think of its texture. When scientists are studying the texture of different foods—like you just did!—they use two different kinds of tests.

First is sensory analysis: A group of people use their senses (touch, sight, smell, taste, hearing) to rate different properties of food. You did some sensory analysis when you compared the sounds of eating different foods. This kind of testing is subjective: Each person gives their own opinion, so everyone’s answers might be slightly different.

Second is texture analysis: Special machines measure different properties of foods, such as the crispiness of a potato chip or the softness of a muffin. You did a kind of texture analysis when you measured how much force it took to break each food. This kind of testing is objective: No opinions are involved, just measurements and numbers.

Scientists use a combination of sensory analysis AND texture analysis to help them understand what people like and don’t like about different foods. Sensory analysis tells us what people experience when they’re eating. Texture analysis gives us details on the exact properties of different foods, such as crunchiness and chewiness. Machines can measure these properties much better than people—and since they don’t eat, there aren’t any foods they don’t like!