Bulk analysis fixtures designs are among the most common and widely used fixtures in the food industry.

The most famous of which is the Kramer Shear Compression Test Cell (KSC). The original design developed by Dr Ahmed Kramer, employs 10 shear blades that move down through a containment box that holds the sample under test. The test combines compression, extrusion and shear and correlates very closely to sensory panel “mouth feel”. Thousands of these test cells are in use every day in the food industry to measure the texture of a wide variety foods. Fruits, vegetables, pastas, ground meats, animal foods, rice and snack food are all typical products that lend themselves to successful texture measurement using bulk analysis designs.

The big advantage of the KSC, is that a large sample of the product can be tested at once. This gives a better average value of texture then testing one small piece of food multiple times and speeds texture assessment. One side effect from testing such an increased sample size is that higher forces are generated as a result. Since competitor systems cannot supply the higher forces, mock up designs like the “Mini Kramer Shear Cell” were developed to try and copy the original. In a sense this defeats one of the big advantages derived from the ability to test larger samples. FTC offers several variations on the KSC such as the CS-2 with 13 thinner shear blades for small particulate such as rice and bread crumbs also models made from stainless steel and Delrin for high acid food like diced tomatoes and salsa.