The theological properties of food products related to their engineering and manufacturing were modeled and estimated. A 2D/3D dynamic FE model for the simulation of uniform objects was formulated based on a five-element physical model and was further extended to deal with nonuniform layered objects. Three kinds of food materials (Japanese sweets) were tested to assess their deformation and force behaviors. An approach based on inverse FE optimization was then proposed to estimate the rheological properties of these objects. Two different sets of rheological parameters were estimated for describing the deformation and force respectively. The estimated parameters were then employed to simulate three-layered food products (consisting of two different materials) in two kinds of compressive operations. The validation results showed that the FE model and property-estimation method accurately reproduced both rheological force and deformation. The FE model can be used to predict the rheological behaviors of food products during their manufacture. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.