JP4673341B2 - Flavor evaluation method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a flavor evaluation method. More specifically, when eating and drinking food and drink, measuring changes in cerebral blood flow in each phase of smelling phase (Phase 1), including in mouth (Phase 2) and swallowing phase (Phase 3) It is related with the flavor evaluation method of the food / beverage characterized by evaluating the suitability of flavor by.

  As a method for evaluating the flavor of food and drink, sensory evaluation based solely on human senses is heavily used. Sensory evaluation is suitable for comprehensive evaluation, but has the disadvantage that subjective factors such as individual differences, sensory fatigue, and changes in physical condition are affected. The QDA method (quantitative description analysis method) is a method that gives objectivity to the subjective evaluation, but it takes time to select common terms and train the panel.

  In addition, various chromatographs including liquid chromatographs, and evaluations by devices such as odor sensors and taste sensors are used. Although evaluation using an instrument such as a liquid chromatograph is objective, analysis for each target item is required, and it takes a considerable amount of time to perform a comprehensive evaluation. A sensor that substitutes human sense of smell and taste has a short measurement time, but has a problem in stability, reproducibility, and correlation with sensory evaluation by a subject.

  Therefore, in order to make the subjective evaluation by humans objective, it has been attempted to adopt a psychophysiological method for observing and measuring physiological responses occurring in the living body in addition to these. Psychophysiology is a psychological study that studies the state and movements of the heart using the indicators of biological responses that can be measured, such as pupil size, heart rate, blood pressure, brain waves, magnetoencephalogram, cerebral blood flow, and stress hormone concentrations. This is a new area. Humans show physiological responses such as changes in blood pressure, heart rate, and stress substances in saliva as well as changes in sensations and emotions by smelling. Observation and measurement of these physiological responses is a method for evaluating flavor from an angle different from conventional instrumental analysis and sensory evaluation, and is a new method for evaluating flavor.

  Capillaries are densely present in the cerebral cortex, the place where most emotional information is finally received, the place of computation processing, and the place where the corresponding output is directed, and the hemoglobin in the blood tends to absorb near infrared rays It has the nature of By using this to irradiate near-infrared rays on the scalp to detect reflected light, the blood flow in the cerebral cortex can be determined, and the activity state thereof can also be determined.

  Non-Patent Document 1 discloses an apparatus (hereinafter referred to as an optical topography apparatus) that measures the amount of hemoglobin using near infrared rays. In this measuring apparatus, near infrared rays (NIR) in a specific wavelength region are incident from one side of the subject's head using an optical fiber. Part of the near-infrared light incident on the subject's head is absorbed by the tissue in the head, and the remaining part is detected by a detector on the scalp via the cerebral cortex. The absorptance in the subject's head is measured by measuring the intensity of the detected near infrared ray. The optical topography apparatus has an advantage that it is not large and restrictive like positron emission tomography (PET method) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI method).

  Non-Patent Document 2 discloses which part of the brain is active by monitoring the brain activity when performing a sensory evaluation of the flavor of tea using an optical topography device.

Journal of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan, Vol. 123, no. 3, 2003, pages 160-163 Appitete, Vol. 7, 2006, 220-232

  The present invention solves the drawbacks based on sensory evaluation, etc., and uses the above-described optical topography device to measure the change in cerebral blood flow when eating and drinking food and drink to evaluate the suitability of the flavor of the food and drink The purpose is to provide.

  The inventors of the present invention first focused on the above characteristics of an optical topography device, and used the optical topography device to examine changes in cerebral blood flow when a taste substance or a food or drink to which a flavor improving agent was added was consumed. Proposing a taste-improving method for taste substances or foods and beverages that select the type or addition amount of the flavor-improving agent based on the measurement results, and activating the frontal lobe function due to its adaptability when the same sample is drunk continuously Disclosed that there is a tendency to gradually become smaller (Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-84781).

  As a result of intensive studies on the “taste” due to the harmony between odor and taste, the present inventors have conducted an extensive study, and this time, each stage when eating and drinking food and drink (smell odor, The amount of change in cerebral blood flow per mouth and swallow) differs between foods and drinks with harmonious odor and taste, and harmonious odor and taste (hereinafter sometimes referred to as flavor). The present inventors have found that it can be evaluated by measuring the amount of change in cerebral blood flow, and have completed the present invention.

That is, the present invention measures changes in cerebral blood flow in each phase of the step of smelling (phase 1), the step of including in the mouth (phase 2), and the step of swallowing (phase 3) when eating and drinking food and drink. In the flavor evaluation method for foods and beverages that evaluates harmony between odor and taste, the higher the change in cerebral blood flow in phase 2 is, the higher the change in cerebral blood flow is, The method for evaluating the flavor of food and drink is provided.

  Moreover, this invention provides the said flavor evaluation method whose cerebral blood flow is the blood flow of a cerebral cortex.

  The present invention further provides the flavor evaluation method as described above, wherein the change in cerebral blood flow measures the change in the amount of hemoglobin in the blood by near infrared spectroscopy.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the flavor evaluation method which can evaluate the suitability of flavors, such as food and drink, efficiently and objectively can be provided.

  In the present invention, the “flavor” to be evaluated is not particularly limited, and examples include taste, aroma such as sweet, sour, bitter, umami, and pungent, and substances that express these “flavor” Specifically, examples of the sweet substance include sugars such as sugar, licorice extract, stevia extract, rakanka extract, and artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, and acesulfame potassium. Examples of sour substances include organic acids contained in lemons, etc., and examples of bitter substances include hop extract (humulones), caffeine, quina extract (kinin), naringin, theobromine, nigaki extract, sagebrush extract , Use in foods such as gentian extract, medicinal bitter substances, alkaloids, etc. Substances, food-containing substances such as polyphenols (catechin, isoflavone, chlorogenic acid) and the like, and among fragrance ingredients, menthol, mint oil, etc. have a bitter taste. Examples of umami substances include nucleic acids such as inosinic acid and guanylic acid, and amino acids such as glutamic acid, alanine, glycine and arginine. Examples of pungent substances include capsaicin in chili pepper, piperine in pepper, 6 in ginger. -Gingerol etc. can be mentioned. Moreover, as a substance which expresses fragrance, a natural fragrance | flavor, a synthetic | combination fragrance | flavor, and fragrance | flavor compositions (formulated fragrance | flavor etc.) containing these fragrance | flavor components can be mentioned.

  “Evaluation of suitability of flavor” refers to, for example, evaluating whether the odor and taste of food and drink are in harmony.

  The flavor evaluation method of the present invention can be performed by measuring a change in cerebral blood flow using an optical topography device attached to a subject when the subject is performing a sensory evaluation of a food or drink diluted with a flavor substance. . Specifically, it can be performed by presenting the subject with a sample in which the odor and taste are harmonized or incongruent and measuring a change in cerebral blood flow when the subject is performing sensory evaluation. The measurement can be performed several times a day, and when measuring by changing the day, it is preferable to measure in the same time zone. The quality of the sample can be evaluated by statistically processing the cerebral blood flow data for each channel (CH) of the optical topography apparatus thus obtained. As an optical topography apparatus used in the present invention, for example, Hitachi ETG-4000 type optical topography apparatus (manufactured by Hitachi Medical Co., Ltd .: 26 channels on one side, 52 channels in total) can be exemplified.

Example 1
In this example, for a sample to which a flavor harmonizing with sugar and a flavor harmonizing with sugar are added, “a step of judging whether to smell and contain in the mouth” (phase 1), “a step of judging whether to swallow in mouth” It was examined how the cerebral blood flow changes in each phase of (Phase 2) and “Phase of enjoying the rest after swallowing” (Phase 3). Sugar flavor (hereinafter referred to as FLA-I, manufactured by Hasegawa Fragrance Co., Ltd.) is used as a flavor that seems to harmonize with sugar, and oolong tea flavor (hereinafter referred to as FLA-J, referred to as HLA River fragrance) as a flavor that appears to be inconsistent with sugar. Selected). A sample, a subject, a measuring device, and a measuring method are shown below.
[sample]
Sample A: Sugar 6% aqueous solution Sample AI: Sugar 6% + FLA-I 0.05% aqueous solution Sample AJ: Sugar 6% + FLA-J 0.002% aqueous solution [subject]
2 men, 3 women [measuring device]
Hitachi ETG-4000 type optical topography device (manufactured by Hitachi Medical Corporation: 26 channels on one side, 52 channels in total)
[Measuring method]
After mounting a probe equipped with a number of sensors connected to an optical topography device on the head of the subject, each sample was presented and measured. After resting for 1 minute according to the time schedule shown in Fig. 1, Mr. Kun actively smells (Phase 1), tastes in the mouth (Phase 2), and tastes after swallowing (Phase 3) The amount of change in cerebral blood flow was measured. Furthermore, after completion of the measurement of cerebral blood flow, the flavor of each sample presented was evaluated according to the questionnaire table shown in FIG. The measurement by the subject was performed at the same time zone with different days.
[result]
In FIG. 3, the average value total result of the test subject's sensory evaluation for every phase of sample A, AI, and AJ is shown.

  In the comparison between AI and AJ, there was no difference in the “scent” of Phase 1. Phase 2 “scent” tends to have slightly lower AI and higher AJ (no significant difference), “taste” has higher AI and lower AJ (significantly different), and “uncomfortable” has lower AI and AJ High (significantly different). There is no difference in the “fragrance” of Phase 3, “Rest” is high in AI and low in AJ (significantly different), “Taste” is high in AI and low in AJ (significantly different), “Something strange” is slightly There was a tendency that AI was low and AJ was high (no significant difference).

  When these results are combined, AI is considered to have a good taste and low discomfort, so the smell and taste are in harmony, and AJ has a low taste and high discomfort, so the smell and taste are considered to be incongruent. . From the above, it was suggested that FLA-I is in harmony with sugar, while FLA-J is incongruent with sugar.

  4 shows the change over time of oxygenated hemoglobin measured by the optical topography apparatus for each phase of samples A, AI, and AJ (channel (CH) 40 on the first day of experiment for subject No. 1). ).

  From the figure, regarding the peak seen in 0-30 seconds corresponding to Phase 1, the change amount is larger than AI, and for the peak seen in 30-60 seconds corresponding to Phase 2, the change amount is from AJ. Has a large AI. Many such trends were observed in the left and right temporal CH of the subjects who evaluated AI as harmonious and AJ as harmonious. From this, it is likely that the change in cerebral blood flow in phase 2 increased by evaluating AI as harmonious, and the change in cerebral blood flow in phase 1 increased by evaluating AJ as harmonized. Considered.

  From the above results, it was found that the suitability of the flavor of the sample can be evaluated by the change rate of cerebral blood flow for each phase.

It is explanatory drawing which shows the time schedule when presenting a sample. It is a questionnaire when a sample is drunk. It is explanatory drawing which shows the average value total result of the test subject's sensory evaluation for every phase of sample A, AI, and AJ. It is a graph which shows the time-dependent change amount of oxygenated hemoglobin measured with the optical topography apparatus for every phase of sample A, AI, and AJ.

Claims (3)

Odor and taste by measuring changes in cerebral blood flow in each phase of scenting (phase 1), including in the mouth (phase 2) and swallowing (phase 3) when eating and drinking In the flavor evaluation method for foods and beverages for evaluating the harmony of food and drink, the taste evaluation of foods and beverages is characterized in that the higher the amount of change in cerebral blood flow in Phase 2, the better the odor and taste are harmonized. Method. The flavor evaluation method according to claim 1, wherein the cerebral blood flow is a blood flow of a cerebral cortex. The flavor evaluation method according to claim 1, wherein the change in cerebral blood flow is determined by measuring the change in the amount of hemoglobin in the blood by near infrared spectroscopy.

Images