Burkard Johannes, Kohler Lucas, Berger Tanja, Logean Mitsuko, Mishra Kim, Windhab Erich J, Denkel Christoph
Insitute of Food, Nutrition and Health, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, Food Science and Management, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Zollikofen, Switzerland.
NPJ Sci Food. 2023 Aug 18;7(1):42. doi: 10.1038/s41538-023-00218-x.
Additive manufacturing (AM) is creating new possibilities for innovative tailoring of food properties through multiscale structuring. This research investigated a high-speed inkjet-based technique aimed to modify sweetness perception by creating dot patterns on chocolate surfaces. The dots were formulated from cocoa butter with emulsified water droplets containing the sweetener thaumatin. The number and surface arrangement of dots, which ranged from uniformly distributed patterns to concentrated configurations at the sample's center and periphery, were varied while maintaining a constant total amount of thaumatin per sample. A sensory panel evaluated sweetness perception at three consumption time points, reporting a significant increase when thaumatin was concentrated on the surface. Specifically, an amplification of sweetness perception by up to 300% was observed, irrespective of dot pattern or consumption time, when compared to samples where thaumatin was uniformly distributed throughout the bulk. However, when thaumatin was concentrated solely at the sample center, maximum sweetness perception decreased by 24%. Conclusively, both the proximity of thaumatin to taste receptors and its spatial distribution, governed by different dot arrangements, significantly influenced taste responsiveness. These findings present a more effective technique to substantially enhance sweetness perception compared to traditional manufacturing techniques. This method concurrently allows for sensorial and visual customization of products. The implications of this study are far-reaching, opening avenues for industrially relevant AM applications, and innovative approaches to study taste formation and perception during oral processing of foods.
增材制造（AM）正在为通过多尺度结构化对食品特性进行创新性定制创造新的可能性。本研究调查了一种基于高速喷墨的技术，旨在通过在巧克力表面创建点状图案来改变甜度感知。这些点由可可脂与含有甜味剂奇异果甜蛋白的乳化水滴配制而成。在保持每个样品中奇异果甜蛋白总量恒定的同时，改变点的数量和表面排列，范围从均匀分布的图案到样品中心和周边的集中配置。一个感官小组在三个食用时间点评估了甜度感知，报告称当奇异果甜蛋白集中在表面时甜度显著增加。具体而言，与奇异果甜蛋白在整个块状物中均匀分布的样品相比，无论点状图案或食用时间如何，甜度感知放大了高达300%。然而，当奇异果甜蛋白仅集中在样品中心时，最大甜度感知下降了24%。总之，奇异果甜蛋白与味觉受体的接近程度及其由不同点状排列控制的空间分布，对味觉反应性有显著影响。与传统制造技术相比，这些发现提出了一种更有效的技术来大幅增强甜度感知。这种方法同时允许对产品进行感官和视觉定制。这项研究的影响深远，为工业相关的增材制造应用以及研究食品口腔加工过程中味道形成和感知的创新方法开辟了道路。
