Progress of Oral Tribology in Food

The process of food processing in the oral is considered to involve rheological and tribological mechanisms, while the oral friction has been considered as an important mechanism of oral texture perception, which is used to describe the relative movement between the tongue and oral cavity, tongue and lips, tongue and food, and the resulting tactile sensations. In this paper, we review the present status of the research progresses in tribological measurement including in-vivo oral friction, sensory perception in the field of food and oral processing. In a food oral processing context, recent research indicates that tribology measurements are providing insights into several texture-related sensory percepts, nevertheless building a quantitative empirical relationship between the two factors is still challenging. Tribology and sensory perception are affected by multiple physical/chemical properties, and therefore integrative approaches that combine tribology with other characterization techniques are necessary for mechanistic understanding on their inter-relationship. The field of oral tribology will undoubtedly continue to develop and provide important tools and knowledge in research and design of foods and beverages.