Company: Stable Micro Systems, Godalming, UK, and Texture Technologies Corp., Hamilton, MA

Website: www.texturetechnologies.com

Equipment Snapshot: According to Stable Micro Systems, achieving the perfect popcorn texture is now quicker and more consistent, thanks to its new testing device, the Triple Ring Cutting System. The device is designed to be used in conjunction with the company’s TA.XTplus texture analyzer. The test head comprises an arrangement of concentric rings, which provides a large cutting surface in a relatively small device and allows a monolayer of sample to be tested to an appropriate depth in a vessel only 95 millimeters in diameter. During the test, the rings cut into the popcorn to a chosen distance above the vessel base, forcing the sample to break down. The texture analyzer measures and gathers force data, automatically calculating work of shear, brittleness, crispiness and crunchiness. Stable Micro Systems is represented in the U.S. by Texture Technologies Corp.