This article discusses the application of a newly designed mass-detecting capillary viscometer (MDCV) to measure the theological characteristics of dairy food continuously over a range of shear rates by single measurement of liquid-mass variation with time. For both dairy milk and soymilk, excellent agreement was found between the results from a MDCV and those from a commercially available rotating viscometer. This new MDCV can accurately measure non-Newtonian viscosity over a wide range of shear rates, extending as low as 0.1 s(-1). In addition, this design provides simplicity (i.e. ease of operation, no moving parts, disposable) and low cost. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.