School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd, Christchurch, New Zealand.
J Texture Stud. 2017 Aug;48(4):294-301. doi: 10.1111/jtxs.12254. Epub 2017 Feb 26.
The role of mastication is to prepare a bolus for safe swallowing. The Swallow Safe model defines deformability, slippiness, and cohesiveness as key properties that influence whether a bolus is safe to swallow. Defining these properties numerically is difficult and current instruments used for bolus analysis have limitations. The slip extrusion test (SET) was developed to objectively measure the swallowability of the bolus through determination of its resistance to deformation and slip. The test measures the force needed to extrude a bolus through a bag as it is pulled through a pair of rollers, imitating the swallowing action of a bolus. Three food model systems were used to evaluate the SET: (a) viscous solutions with varying viscosity, (b) gels with varying hardness, and (c) particulate systems of varying cohesion. The test was applied to peanut boluses produced in vivo to demonstrate its potential in characterizing boluses. The deformation and slip resistance measurements correlated well with the hardness and viscosity measurements of the gels and viscous solutions respectively (correlation coefficient r = .94 between deformation resistance and hardness; r = .85 for slip resistance and hardness in gels; r = .98 for deformation resistance and viscosity; r = .93 for slip resistance and viscosity in solutions). The advantage of the SET is it can evaluate the swallowability of a wide range of foods of different structure and composition. It could potentially be used to investigate the properties of boluses throughout oral processing and help in establishing the criteria for a safe to swallow bolus in a quantitative way.
The test could be used to measure bolus properties from the initial stages of breakdown to the point of swallow for all types of food. The ability to measure the changes in bolus properties through all stages of breakdown using the same instrument is a significant development. The resistance to deformation and slip are quantitative measurements that could potentially be used to further develop the Swallow Safe model by providing numerical limits to the identified properties. This could be of interest to the development of foods for dysphagia sufferers.
咀嚼的作用是制备安全吞咽的食团。吞咽安全模型将可变形性、滑溜性和内聚性定义为影响食团是否安全吞咽的关键特性。用数值定义这些特性是困难的，目前用于食团分析的仪器具有局限性。滑挤出试验（SET）是为了通过确定其变形和滑动阻力来客观地测量食团的可吞咽性而开发的。该测试通过拉动一对滚轮来测量通过袋子挤出食团所需的力，模拟食团的吞咽动作。使用三种食品模型系统来评估 SET：（a）具有不同粘度的粘性溶液，（b）具有不同硬度的凝胶，和（c）具有不同内聚性的颗粒系统。该测试应用于体内产生的花生食团，以证明其在表征食团方面的潜力。变形和滑动阻力测量与凝胶和粘性溶液的硬度测量分别具有很好的相关性（变形阻力与硬度之间的相关系数 r =.94；凝胶中滑动阻力与硬度之间的 r =.85；变形阻力与粘度之间的 r =.98；溶液中滑动阻力与粘度之间的 r =.93）。SET 的优点是它可以评估不同结构和组成的各种食物的可吞咽性。它有可能用于研究整个口腔加工过程中食团的特性，并帮助以定量方式建立安全吞咽食团的标准。
该测试可用于测量所有类型食物从初始崩解阶段到吞咽点的食团特性。使用相同的仪器测量崩解过程中所有阶段食团特性变化的能力是一个重大进展。变形和滑动阻力是定量测量，有可能通过为所识别的特性提供数值限制来进一步发展吞咽安全模型。这可能对开发吞咽困难患者的食品感兴趣。
