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Juiciness is an important quality characteristic of strawberries. However, at present there is no easy instrumental method to analyze the juiciness, that is independent of the operator. Furthermore, the correlation of the existing methods with sensorial analyses is not always completely established. In this study, a new instrumental method is developed and compared with existing instrumental methods and with sensory evaluation by a trained sensory panel. Fifteen types of strawberries (different varieties and ripeness) are used for the evaluation. The best instrumental method starts with freezing the strawberries.After chopping the frozen strawberries in a blixer, the strawberry pieces are thawed in a known volume of water. The total amount of liquid,filtrated through a Buchner funnel,is weighed and the instrumental juiciness is calculated from the weight difference. This method has the lowest variation coefficient and the best correlation with the juiciness determined by the sensory panel. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSJuiciness is an important parameter for most fruit types and it certainly is for strawberries. A reliable, instrumental method to determine the juiciness is therefore highly wanted by all stakeholders (growers, traders, industry). The instrumental method developed in this research shows a good correlation with sensory analyses and a high reproducibility. In addition, the method requires only standard lab equipment. This method can, therefore, be easily implemented in all labs, which allows a widespread application. Journal of Texture Studies ISSN 0022-4901 42 Journal of Texture Studies 42 (2011) 42-49

A critical stress at a critical distance crack propagation criterion is a good way to model the fracture in cheese. This physical criterion states that the crack-tip node debonds when the stress at a specified distance ahead of the crack tip on the assumed crack path reaches a critical value. Although this criterion is already used in other research domains, no consistent information exists on how the critical stress and distance should be determined. A repeatable method for the determination of this criterion which combines experimental and numerical single edge notched bending tests was acquired. This criterion was validated with wire cutting experiments of cheese. The experimental and numerical results showed the same trend with a clear wire indentation and steady state cutting phase. The determination of a critical stress and distance criterion as proposed in this research is a good approach to model fracture and cutting of cheese