COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TEXTURE TERMS: ENGLISH, FRENCH, JAPANESE AND CHINESE

Abstract

ABSTRACT Texture vocabularies in English, French, Japanese and Chinese languages are examined, and their characteristics are described. It wasconfirmed that most frequently used texture vocabularies concern with the mechanical and geometrical properties, and are used to describe solid‐like foods rather than liquid‐like foods. It was also shown that in all the languages, the terms used by texture experts and consumers are different. Complete agreement was not recognized even among texture experts, although it is expected that the validation of most fundamental terms could be reached through discussions. Further detailed comparison is now in progress. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS In the globalization age, it is becoming more and more important to understand different languages representing texture of foods. Therefore, it is useful to compare the texture terms in different languages both for academic researchers and workers in the trade and industries.