Fresh‐Cut Salad Vegetable Texture and Its Characterization Using Instrumental and Sensory Evaluation—A Review

Along with flavor, texture is one of the most important attributes of fresh-cut produce, which plays a critical role in consumer acceptance, influencing perceived freshness, quality, and overall eating experience. Salads, specifically green salads, usually contain leafy greens and other fresh-cut fruit vegetables such as cucumbers and tomatoes. Each of these components has its own unique characteristics, together giving the salad a wide range of textures and consumer experiences. Texture can be measured by both instrumental analysis and sensory evaluation techniques. Instrumental analysis consists of destructive and non-destructive methods, whereas sensory evaluation consists of descriptive and consumer studies. However, a comprehensive understanding and correlation of instrumental analysis and sensory evaluation of texture in salad-related fresh-cut fruits and vegetables is lacking in the literature. This review aims to address this gap by providing an in-depth understanding of the techniques used to quantify texture-related parameters and establishing relationships between the two techniques in fresh-cut salad products. The two different modes of analysis, along with the vastly different texture-related characteristics of fresh-cut salad produce, make it challenging to correlate instrumental analysis with sensory evaluation results. Furthermore, the integration of advanced technologies, including hyperspectral imaging and artificial intelligence-driven texture analysis, is emerging as a promising approach to enhance texture characterization and quality control. In addition to providing a comprehensive approach to enhance quality assessment methods, this review highlights the importance of predictability models powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, enabling correlating instrumental analysis and sensory evaluation.