Even before the publication of Special Technical Publication 433 of the American Society for Testing and Materials, it became obvious that the brief treatment given to the principles and techniques for sensory measurement and analysis of texture in that volume was all too brief; hence, a task force of ASTM Committee E-18 was formed to develop an authoritative and comprehensive volume on this most complex and important subject to provide within one cover for the student, researcher, and the food manufacturer, a definition and an understanding of the subject offood texture, as well as sensory and objective methods for its measurement. This most difficult task appeared to be possible only after the task force had obtained the assistance of special­ ists in the many disciplines involved, and after deciding to limit the dissertation to the measurement of texture of foods only. The task was further clarified when Dr. Finney proposed an outline of six chapters, beginning with one on definition. The second chapter was to be on principles of sensory evaluations, the third on sensory measurements, the fourth on principles of objective evaluation, the fifth on objective measurements, and the final concluding chapter on subjective-objective analogues. The first drafts of these six chapters constituted a symposium on texture presented before a joint session at the 1971 Annual Meeting of the Institute of Food Technology and the American Society for Testing and Materials.