When it comes to food and drink flavours, consumers are more difficult than ever to impress because of the amount of choice they are exposed to.
As such, it is crucial that food and drinks are not only seen as appealing now but create some sense of excitement and adventure among consumers. Brands should push the boundaries of sensory appeal by continuing to launch products with new and innovative flavours and textures. The goal, when applicable, is to see these unusual flavours combined with novel textures and colours to create a truly unique consumption experience.
Scientists from the National Agriculture and Food Research Organisation, Japan, have been researching compression tests of soft food gels using a soft machine with an artificial tongue.
Easy to eat food is increasingly required in the advanced-aged society in Japan. Mechanical properties of such foods must be modified such that the foods are easily broken by the tongue without chewing. When foods are compressed between the tongue and the hard palate, the tongue deforms considerably, and only soft foods are broken. To simulate tongue compression of soft foods, artificial tongues with stiffness similar to that of the human tongue were created using clear soft materials.
Veganism is growing in popularity due to increased education about its environmental, health and ethical benefits.
An Alpro report from 2018 (‘Plant-Based Profits with Alpro and BB Food Service’) stated that the UK plant based market at the time was worth £443m, having grown by £129m in three years. Due to this growth, vegan alternatives to products traditionally made with animal produce have swarmed the food market, and most use the new term ‘plant-based’ to describe a vegan product. It is now possible to buy a vegan version of almost every animal based product from chocolate fudge cake to crispy duck, and new companies are popping up that are dedicated solely to plant alternatives.
Researchers have developed a method to analyse the physical characteristics of a potato chip at four stages of eating — from the first bite to the final swallow — to help formulate a tastier low-fat snack. The results of the research have been reported in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
While munching on low-fat potato chips might reduce the guilt compared with full-fat versions, many people don’t find the texture as appealing. Cutting fat in potato chips usually involves reducing the vegetable oil content but it’s the oil that helps give the product its characteristic crunch, taste and mouthfeel.
According to Kantar Worldpanel, the food-to-go market as a whole rose to be worth £25bn in the year preceding September 2018, and food manufacturers have kept up with rising demand with a stream of innovation that fits into busy, on-the-go schedules. Products are easy to carry around and made simple to eat in single servings, often with forks, spoons or chopsticks included in the packaging. This trend has arrived at the same time as an eco-friendlier generation, with increased interest in plant-based food and dislike of single-use plastics, so products with a high meat content and traditional plastic containers will likely be snubbed in the supermarket.
At the University of Milan scientists have been researching 3D printed multi-compartment capsular devices for two-pulse oral drug delivery.
The resistance to deformation of printed and moulded capsular devices was measured under compression using their TA.XTplus Texture Analyser.
This study helped to develop delivery methods for enhanced customisation of drug combinations.
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The meat substitutes market size is estimated to be worth 9.25 Billion USD by 2023.
Consuming meat for many is a part of their daily life, but the majority are opting for a healthy version by switching to non-meat foods for catering to their protein needs.
Avoiding or restricting meat in the diet may be challenging, yet with the nutritional, environmental and health benefits of selecting meat substitutes over meat, this challenge will be worth the effort.
Apricots have a short storage life principally caused by a rapid softening, which increases the sensitivity of the fruit to mechanical damage, and to the development of fungal diseases.
The current methods to assess fruit firmness give limited information on the evolution and the mechanisms of softening.
