Texture shapes how we perceive and like food, yet clear links between mechanical measurements and sensory perception of texture remain elusive. Here we combine sensory data from a blind tasting with 101 participants with mechanical texture profile analysis across six burgers to identify the textural features that drive consumer perception and liking. We compare five burgers -- generated with artificial intelligence -- with animal-based, plant-based, mushroom-based, and hybrid animal-mushroom patties, and the classical Big\,Mac. Three main findings emerge: First, animal-based burgers occupy a distinctive and coherent sensory-mechanical region associated with attributes such as firm, fatty, and holds together. Second, mushroom- and plant-based burgers deviate from this region in protein-dependent ways: mushroom-based burgers associate with springy and gummy textures, while plant-based burgers associate with dry, brittle, and crumbly textures. Hybrid animal-mushroom burgers, however, maintain sensory profiles comparable to fully animal-based burgers. Third, resilience emerges as the strongest mechanical correlate of perceived meatiness and sensory texture, while stiffness and hardness show no statistically significant association with consumer perception. Texture independently predicts overall liking alongside flavor: increasing texture liking by one point increases overall liking by 0.28. Among all sensory attributes, meatiness is the dominant predictor of texture liking. These findings identify resilience as a promising target for texture engineering and establish texture as a critical design objective for sustainable alternative proteins.

翻译：质地塑造了我们对食物的感知与偏好，然而机械测量与质地的感官感知之间的明确关联仍难以捉摸。本研究结合101名参与者的盲测感官数据与六种汉堡的机械质地剖面分析，确定了驱动消费者感知与偏好的质地特征。我们将五种人工智能生成的汉堡与动物源性、植物源性、蘑菇源性及动物-蘑菇混合肉饼，以及经典巨无霸汉堡进行比较。主要发现有三点：第一，动物源性汉堡占据一个独特且一致的感官-机械区域，其关联属性包括紧实、油腻和结构完整。第二，蘑菇源性和植物源性汉堡以蛋白质依赖的方式偏离该区域：蘑菇源性汉堡关联弹性与胶黏质地，而植物源性汉堡关联干燥、易碎和松散质地。然而，动物-蘑菇混合汉堡保持了与纯动物源性汉堡相当的感官特征。第三，回弹性成为感知肉感与感官质地的最强机械关联因素，而刚度与硬度与消费者感知无统计显著关联。质地与风味共同独立预测总体偏好：质地偏好每提升一分，总体偏好提升0.28。在所有感官属性中，肉感是质地偏好的主导预测因素。这些发现将回弹性确定为质地工程的一个有前景目标，并将质地确立为可持续替代蛋白的关键设计目标。