## 3 Results and Discussion
### Texture of Bell Pepper Samples  
The texture is a sensory and functional expression of food's structural, mechanical, and surface characteristics, as perceived through human senses. Texture is a multidimensional sensory property that can only be detected by humans, encompassing attributes such as crispness and chewiness. It arises from the food's molecular, microscopic, and macroscopic structures and is primarily perceived through touch and pressure [47; 48]. Texture analysis (TPA) simulates the chewing process, providing insights into essential texture attributes such as hardness, elasticity, cohesiveness, and chewiness. During TPA tests, samples are compressed between flat plates. Hardness refers to the force needed to compress the sample, elasticity describes the material's ability to return to its original shape after compression, cohesiveness indicates how much the material can be deformed before breaking, and chewiness is the energy required to reduce solid food to a swallow able form [49]. The hardness of the red bell pepper ranged from 9.67N (S_1_F--after fermentation) to 36.26N (fresh) (Figure 3a). The hardness of most sonicated samples remained similar to that of fresh red bell pepper, except for (US_15) and (S_3), where hardness decreased by 16.66% and 22.06%, respectively. Statistically significant differences in hardness were found between the treatment methods, but the parameters within each technique did not affect this texture attribute. The results show that both fresh red bell pepper and those subjected to sonication required significantly more force than fermented red bell pepper, indicating that fermenta  
Figure 3: Different texture determinants correlated with US pre-treatment and fermentation process. (**a**) Chewiness and hardness, (**b**) elasticity and springiness. Different letters indicate statistically significant differences according to [PERSON]’s test at \(\alpha=0.05\) for each parameter separately. tion softens the product. After fermentation, the hardness decreased from 27 (US_30_F) to 85% (Fresh_F) compared to fresh non-treated red bell pepper. Pre-fermentation treatments did not differ significantly in use. Chewiness ranged from 1.14 (Fresh_F) to 6.74N (Fresh) (Figure 3a). A significant decrease in chewiness was observed between the fresh control and pre-treated samples, from 17% (S_5) to 80% (S_1). Statistically significant differences were found between treatments, with PEF-treated samples showing significantly lower chewiness than sonicated samples, similar to the trend observed for hardness. Fermentation caused a significant reduction in chewiness, even to 90.65% (S_1), compared to fresh bell pepper. A huge decrease in chewiness was observed when the pre-treated samples were compared with their post-fermentation counterparts. However, no statistically significant changes were observed between samples after fermentation and pre-treatment. Elasticity in bell pepper ranged from 34.52% (S_1_F--after fermentation) to 56.56% (S_1) (Figure 3b). No significant differences were found between the fresh control and pre-treatment samples before fermentation. As sonication time increased from 15 to 30 min for the immersion method and from 1 to 5 min for the contact method, elasticity decreased by 1.89% and 10.53%, respectively. However, a decreasing trend in elasticity was observed with increasing sonication time, though not statistically significant. Fermentation led to a significant reduction in elasticity, from 25% (US_30_F) to 36% (S_1_F) compared to fresh bell pepper sample. Springiness ranged from 0.18 (S_1_F so after fermentation) to 0.34 (Fresh and S_5) (Figure 3b). No significant differences in cohesiveness were observed between the fresh control and pre-treated samples. Most pre-treated samples showed decreased cohesiveness, except for (S_5). The drop in cohesiveness suggests that treatments such as sonication reduce the firmness of the bell pepper tissue [44; 50].