# Effects of Organic Acid Coagulants on the Textural and Physical-Chemical Properties of Tofu
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Texture Profile Analysis (TPA)  
No differences in hardness and tractability are noted in the evaluated textural properties (Table 3). In addition, the coagulant type does influence these properties, because the lowest indices in strength required to deform the foodstuff are in the treatments where white vinegar has been applied as the coagulant. In the case of the cohesiveness, it is influenced by the coagulant because the highest values are reached when the apple vinegar and white vinegar are applied, thus causing the tofu to acquire a higher cohesiveness; that is, the limit point to deform the sample and the necessary work to overcome the internal bond in it is increased in the tofu samples on which these to coagulants have been applied. The adhesiveness increases when using the apple vinegar and the interactions of the rice vinegar coagulants, for which higher effort was needed to separate the surface of the coagulated samples from the texturemeter surface with these kin \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Treatment** & **Hardness (N)** & **Fracturability** & **Adimensional** & **Adhesiveness** & **Adimensional** \\  & & **(N)** & **Cohesiveness \textless{} 1** & **(g/cm)** & **Elasticity \textless{} 1** \\ \hline T1C5 ** & 31.70 \(\pm\) 3.18 & 32.22 \(\pm\) 3.00 & 0.31 \({}^{a}\)\(\pm\) 0.04 & 25.00 \({}^{b}\)\(\pm\) 5.37 & 0.45 \({}^{a}\)\(\pm\) 0.05 \\ T2C3  & 64.16 \({}^{a}\)\(\pm\) 1.20 & 63.44 \({}^{a}\)\(\pm\) 0.99 & 0.20 \({}^{c}\)\(\pm\) 0.04 & 30.18 \({}^{a}\)\(\pm\) 1.56 & 0.30 \({}^{c}\)\(\pm\) 0.07 \\ T3C3  & 11.95 \({}^{d}\)\(\pm\) 0.03 & 11.96 \({}^{d}\)\(\pm\) 0.05 & 0.25 \({}^{b}\)\(\pm\) 0.03 & 16.04 \({}^{c}\)\(\pm\) 0.93 & 0.38 \({}^{b}\)\(\pm\) 0.05 \\ T4C5  & 15.60 \({}^{c}\)\(\pm\) 0.12 & 15.54 \({}^{c}\)\(\pm\) 0.10 & 0.24 \({}^{b}\)\(\pm\) 0.05 & 14.50 \({}^{c}\)\(\pm\) 1.74 & 0.35 \({}^{b}\)\(\pm\) 0.07 \\ T5C5  & 15.23 \(\pm\) 0.27 & 15.40 \({}^{c}\)\(\pm\) 0.21 & 0.34 \({}^{a}\)\(\pm\) 0.05 & 12.63 \({}^{c}\)\(\pm\) 0.52 & 0.48 \({}^{a}\)\(\pm\) 0.07 \\ T6C3  & 9.62 \(\pm\) 0.41 & 9.64 \({}^{a}\)\(\pm\) 0.06 & 0.30 \({}^{ab}\)\(\pm\) 0.02 & 13.13 \({}^{c}\)\(\pm\) 0.36 & 0.35 \({}^{b}\)\(\pm\) 0.07 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Texture profile analysis of the tofu in each evaluated treatment. the elasticity property, it is noted that the coagulant type exerts an influence on it; the highest elasticity indices were found in the treatments where the apple vinegar was used, and where the apple vinegar was combined with another vinegar type. The tofu obtained by applying these kinds of vinegars as a coagulant recovered more than 40% of its structure after applying the force for its deformation. Regarding these properties, it was observed that the treatments in which the apple vinegar (T1C5), rice vinegar (T2C3), and their combinations (T4C5) were applied showed the highest hardness and fracturability values, with a required force of up to 64.16 N to achieve its rupture; however, in the treatments in which the white vinegar was applied as a coagulant (T3C3), or in combination (T6C3), soft tofu was obtained, for which the force required to achieve its rupture was very low. Concerning the cohesiveness property, it was obtained that the highest values were found in the treatments where the apple vinegar and the combination of apple vinegar with white vinegar were applied; thus, achieving the highest cohesiveness was obtained by the TSC5 treatment with a value of 0.34. For the adhesiveness property, it was proven that the treatment with higher adhesiveness (stickier) was the T2C3 (rice vinegar) treatment with 30.18 g/cm, which showed the highest effort required to separate the sample from the texturometer arm. In the elasticity property, it was shown that the treatments that obtained higher elasticity indices were T1C5 with 0.45, T3C3 with 0.38, and TSC5 with 0.48; that is, these treatments recovered more than 40% of the tofu shape after the compression cycle.