2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Effects of mastication on texture and flwvor perception of solid foods

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	19H01618
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Review Section	Basic Section 08030:Family and consumer sciences, and culture and living-related
Research Institution	National Agriculture and Food Research Organization
Principal Investigator	KOHYAMA Kaoru 国立研究開発法人農業・食品産業技術総合研究機構, 食品研究部門, 主席研究員 (00353938)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	日下部裕子国立研究開発法人農業・食品産業技術総合研究機構, 食品研究部門, グループ長補佐 (90353937)
Project Period (FY)	2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
Keywords	食品 / テクスチャー / フレーバー / 味覚 / 咀嚼 / モデル舌 / 唾液 / 舌圧
Outline of Final Research Achievements	Foods are heterogeneous and non-equilibrium and show significant structural changes during eating. Novel methods for texture and flavor evaluation are developed. Soft solid foods such as gels are crushable between the tongue and the hard palate, but hard foods are chewed with teeth. Instrumental measurements using model tongues suggested that fracture deformation rather than fracture force determines these eating pattern of humans. A compression test combined with video observation from the bottom and side was conducted to clearly analyze the fracture phenomenon of soft gels. As human measurements, the amount of saliva secreted during oral processing was quantified using model gels in which the mechanical characteristics and the bite-size were controlled. Furthermore, the mastication behavior of cooked rice as a real food was evaluated using electromyography of masticatory muscles. Natural eating behavior was estimated with electromyography parameters of a fixed bite.
Free Research Field	食品科学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	摂食中に構造が大きく変化する固形状食品について、テクスチャーおよびフレーバーの新規な評価法をいくつか提案した。破壊荷重が同等でも、舌で押しつぶされる場合と歯で噛まないと破壊できない場合があり、この摂食様式を決める要因が破壊変形であることが、モデル舌を用いた機器測定で示唆された。ビデオ観察の併用は、食品の破壊現象の理解を助けるものである。コロナ禍の影響もあり、ヒト試験は当初の計画通りには行えず、実証は不十分なものの、舌圧や唾液分泌量などの個人差によるテクスチャーやフレーバーの違いも示唆される結果が得られた。これらの研究成果は、少子高齢社会におけるおいしい食品開発に応用できると考えられる。