JP7034638B2 - Food texture evaluation method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a method for quantitatively evaluating the texture of food.

In recent years, consumers' tastes for food have become more and more diversified, and as factors for evaluating the deliciousness of food, along with taste and aroma, the texture, chewing comfort, cohesiveness in the oral cavity, solid feeling, and stiffness of the mouth, etc. It has a wide range of textures and throats.

Conventionally, a method of measuring and evaluating the physical characteristics of a food using an analytical instrument such as a viscometer or a texture analyzer has been used to evaluate the texture such as the texture and chewy texture of the food.
In recent years, evaluation methods that take into account actual eating behavior (chewing, swallowing, etc.), changes over time in foods, and factors in the oral cavity have been disclosed, and methods for evaluating foods in more detail and from multiple perspectives have been studied. Specifically, a method of quantitatively and objectively estimating and evaluating the texture by calculating the ratio of the muscle activity of the masticatory muscle to the muscle activity of the masticatory muscle at the time of maximum occlusion during the processing time (Patent Document). 1) By measuring the myoelectric potential of the masseter muscles and suprahyoid muscles on both the left and right sides of the subject, it is possible to grasp the lower jaw movement and the tongue movement, thereby objectively and physiologically evaluating the texture. (Patent Document 2) and the like are disclosed.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2016-52516 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2012-139442

However, in the prior art, the correlation between the sensory evaluation of the texture when the food is actually chewed and the measured value regarding the physical characteristics of the acquired food is low, and there is room for improvement.

An object of the present invention is to provide a texture evaluation method that enhances the correlation between these problems, that is, the sensory evaluation of texture and the measured value relating to the physical identification of food.

The present inventors repeatedly studied the above-mentioned problems, measured the total feeding time and chewing time of the sample by the subject, and obtained the ratio of the chewing time to the total eating time, thereby performing a sensory evaluation and good texture. The present invention was completed based on the finding that a quantitative evaluation having a good correlation can be performed.

The present invention relates to a method for evaluating the texture of a food having the following aspects.
Item 1)
It is a texture evaluation method that quantitatively evaluates the texture of foods that require chewing during eating.
A texture evaluation method comprising obtaining the ratio of the chewing time to the total feeding time of a sample by a subject.
Item 2)
Item 2. The texture evaluation method according to Item 1, wherein the total feeding time and the chewing time are measured by measuring the myoelectric potential.

According to the present invention, it is possible to quantitatively evaluate the texture of food, and the content of the evaluation has a good correlation with the sensory evaluation of the texture.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention enables quantitative evaluation having a good correlation with sensory evaluation by measuring the total feeding time and chewing time of a sample by a subject and obtaining the ratio of the chewing time to the total feeding time. Is.

The foods whose texture can be evaluated in the present invention are foods that require chewing when eaten. Specifically, ice cream, lacto ice, ice milk, cold confectionery such as ice cream, gelled foods such as jelly, pudding, and apricot tofu, dairy products such as yogurt, cheese, butter, and margarine, mango, pear, muscat, and grapes. , Fruits such as apples, bananas, melons and peaches, vegetables such as carrots, onions, cucumbers, eggplants, cabbage, lettuce, onions and peppers, grains such as rice, wheat, barley, corn, soybeans and red beans, beef , Pork, chicken, goat, sheep meat and other meats, salmon, eel, autumn sword fish, snapper, salmon, ayu, shrimp, scallop, crab, asari and other seafood, gummy, cookies, biscuits, snacks, chocolate, candy , Confectionery such as cakes, processed foods such as rice cakes, noodles, cereals, bars, kamaboko, and tablets, or foods combining these can be exemplified.

These foods are generally available, and the usefulness of the present invention lies in the fact that the texture of such foods can be quantitatively evaluated.

By quantitatively evaluating the texture of food, not only is it simply hard and soft, but also quantitatively evaluates, for example, how close the texture of jelly that imitates fruit is to real fruit. Is possible.

In addition, the ratio of total feeding time to chewing time also provides an index showing the ease of swallowing, which is how much the measured food must be chewed before swallowing. .. It can be seen that foods having a high value are difficult to dissolve due to the temperature in the oral cavity and saliva, which require chewing until immediately before swallowing. On the other hand, it can be seen that foods having a low value do not require much chewing until they can be swallowed and have a long residence time in the mouth. For example, foods with a high value are foods with a high "lumpiness", "solidity", "cohesion", "fiber feeling", "chew feeling", "remaining mouth feeling" and "body feeling". Foods with a low value can be evaluated as foods with a good "feeling of mouthfeel" and "feeling of mouthfeel".

The measured values acquired by the texture evaluation method of the present invention are the "total feeding time" from when the subject puts the food in the mouth and starts chewing to swallowing, and the chewing after the subject puts the food in the mouth and starts chewing. It is the "chewing time" until the end. That is, the total feeding time can be defined as the duration from the time when the chewing is started (the time when the chewing is started) to the time when the swallowing is finished (the time when the swallowing is finished) after the food is taken into the oral cavity. It can be defined as the duration from the start of mastication to the end of mastication (the end of mastication). The end of mastication is always earlier than the end of swallowing, and therefore the mastication time is shorter than the total feeding time. This is spent from the end of chewing to the end of post-swallowing to gather the chewed food into a bolus that is easy to swallow, to feel the aftertaste of the mouth and taste in the entire mouth, or to swallow. There is. For example, a food having a large ratio of chewing time to eating time has a texture with a “lumpy feeling” that takes time to chew, and can be easily made into a bolus so that it can be swallowed immediately after chewing. It can be inferred that it has a good “cohesiveness”. On the other hand, foods with a small ratio of chewing time to total eating time are hard enough to be chewed without taking time, and have a good “feeling of melting” and “feeling of mouth” in the mouth, and swallowing. It can be inferred that it is a food that can enjoy these textures before.

The total feeding time and mastication time can be measured by the subject himself / herself using a stopwatch or by the measurer by other mechanical method to measure the time from the start of mastication to the end of mastication or the end of swallowing. Can be mentioned. The subject may inform the measurer of the time until the start of mastication, the end of mastication, or the end of swallowing by a signal such as a hand switch, a raised hand, or a bell, and the method of the signal is not limited. In addition, by attaching a microphone to the throat of the subject and recording the sound or vibration at the time of feeding, it is possible to measure the time at the start of mastication, the time at the end of mastication, and the time at the end of swallowing.

Alternatively, a method of measuring the myoelectric potential by attaching surface electrodes to either or both of the left and right masseter muscles of the subject as described in Patent Document 1 may be used. In this case, the start of mastication is the moment when the signal of the first masseter muscle appears after the food is put in the mouth (in most cases, the signal of the first masseter muscle appears at the same time as the start of mastication), and the end of mastication is the last. It can be defined as the moment when the masseter signal for mastication disappears, and the end point of swallowing is the moment when the last masseter signal at the time of swallowing disappears. Further, as a method of measuring the end time of swallowing, not only the masseter muscle but also the myoelectric potential of the muscles involved in feeding such as the suprahyoid muscle group can be measured. Although the measurement can be performed by only one of the above-mentioned methods or by using a plurality of methods in combination, myoelectric potential measurement is preferable as the measurement method.

The ratio of the chewing time to the total feeding time obtained above is calculated as the chewing ratio based on the formula 1.
(Equation 1)
Chewing ratio (%) = chewing time / total feeding time x 100

At this time, the total feeding time indicates the duration from the start of mastication to the end of swallowing, and the mastication time indicates the duration from the start of mastication to the end of mastication.

In the present invention, the texture is evaluated using the value of the chewing ratio.
As an example of the evaluation method, a case of evaluating the texture of frozen fruits and frozen desserts imitating the textures of frozen fruits will be described.

As a procedure of the evaluation method, first, the above-mentioned chewing ratio is acquired as information on frozen fruits. Next, the chewing ratio of the imitated frozen dessert is obtained, and the texture is evaluated by comparing the numerical values of the chewing ratios of both. As a specific evaluation, when the value of the chewing ratio of the imitated frozen dessert is high, it can be seen that the texture has a high “lumpy feeling” and a firm texture. If the value is low, it can be seen that the texture is soft and has a good “feeling of melting in the mouth”. Furthermore, when developing a jelly that imitates frozen fruits, the two values are compared, and if the values of the frozen jelly that imitate the values obtained from the frozen fruits are close, a frozen jelly with an approximate texture can be obtained. It can be judged that it is.

That is, the present invention provides not only as a method for evaluating the texture, but also as a guideline for evaluating how close the texture of foods is, such as frozen fruits and frozen jellies imitating them.
If the above-mentioned values of the chewing ratio are close to each other, it can be proved from the correlation between the frozen fruit and the sensory evaluation of the frozen dessert that the texture is similar.
It was confirmed that the numerical value obtained by the chewing ratio and the sensory evaluation obtained by actually eating the food had a good correlation, and the present invention was completed.

Myoelectric potential signal waveform indicating the start time of mastication, the end time of mastication, and the end time of swallowing Graph of masticatory rate and sensory evaluation value

Hereinafter, the contents of the present invention will be specifically described based on the following examples, but the present invention is not limited thereto. During prescription, the unit was "parts by mass" unless otherwise specified.

In this example, myoelectric potential measurement was used to measure the mastication time and the like.
<Measurement procedure>
1) A twin electrode was used for the measurement of myoelectric potential. Twin electrodes were attached to the left and right masseter muscles of the subject. A throat microphone was attached to the skin surface near the larynx for measuring swallowing sound.
2) The potential difference generated when the subject chewed the sample was measured with an electrode, amplified by an amplifier, captured using the MP-150 system, and recorded as a waveform with the elapsed time (waveform analysis software: Biopac Systems). Made by AcqKnowledge). At the same time, the swallowing sound obtained from the throat microphone was also recorded as a waveform by the MP-150 system. At the start of mastication, at the end of mastication, and at the end of swallowing, a hand switch was used to signal.
3) The total feeding time and chewing time were measured from the myoelectric potential signal waveform (FIG. 1) obtained in the step 2) above.
・ Total feeding time: The time when the first myoelectric potential signal appears at the start of mastication, the time when the myoelectric potential signal at the last swallowing disappears at the end of swallowing, and the duration from the start of mastication to the end of swallowing. Was taken as the total feeding time.
-Mastication time: The mastication end time was defined as the time when the myoelectric potential signal at the time of the last mastication disappeared, and the duration from the above-mentioned mastication start time to the mastication end time was defined as the mastication time.
The myoelectric potential signal due to mastication and the myoelectric potential signal due to swallowing can be distinguished from the swallowing sound and the hand switch signal measured at the same time.
4) The ratio of the mastication time to the measured total feeding time was calculated as the mastication ratio, and graphed together with the evaluation value (out of 100 points) of the sensory evaluation performed at the same time (Fig. 2).

<Example>
The following samples were evaluated based on the above procedure by 3 subjects (2 healthy toothed jaws, 2 males and 1 female, average age 26.3 years).
・ Ice bar (commercially available)… Apple-flavored ice cream with sticks (ice confectionery)
・ Frozen mango (5 minutes after thawing)… Mango fruit cut to a size of 5 g, frozen and thawed at room temperature for 5 minutes ・ Mango ice (commercially available)… A stick with a texture close to that of frozen mango With ice cream. Contains 25% or more of mango juice.
・ Frozen mango jelly: Frozen mango jelly prepared based on the prescription in Table 1. Frozen jelly with a texture similar to that of frozen mango.
・ Frozen muscat (5 minutes after thawing)… Muscat fruit is frozen and thawed at room temperature for 5 minutes ・ Frozen muscat jelly… Muscat jelly prepared based on the formulation in Table 2 is frozen. Frozen jelly with a texture close to that of frozen muscat.
・ Frozen pear (2 minutes after thawing compote)… Pear (comport) cut to a size of 5 g, frozen and thawed at room temperature for 2 minutes ・ Frozen pear jelly… Prepared based on the formulation in Table 3. Frozen pear jelly. Frozen jelly with a texture close to that of frozen pear.

<Measurement 1>
Each subject contained the above sample in their own mouth, chewed freely, and performed the movement up to swallowing. Based on the total feeding time and the chewing time obtained by a series of operations, the chewing ratio (the ratio of the chewing time to the total feeding time) is calculated and shown in Table 4.

<Measurement 2>
At the same time as measurement 1, each subject performed a sensory evaluation based on the following criteria. The results are shown in Table 5.

Criteria for sensory evaluation values: The "lumpiness" of each sample was evaluated based on the VAS method. When eating, those who feel a strong solid texture for a long time are highly evaluated, and those who do not feel a solid texture so much are evaluated low. In addition, the evaluation of the lumpy texture is that the solid texture is strong at the time of eating, the one that lasts for a long time is "high lumpy texture", and the one that the solid texture disappears immediately is "low lumpy texture". Be evaluated. Examples of foods with a high “lumpiness” include caramel, and low ones include ice cream and gelatin jelly.

<Result>
FIG. 2 shows a graph of the chewing ratio in Table 4 and the sensory evaluation values in Table 5.

From FIG. 2, it can be seen that according to the texture evaluation method according to the present invention, the value of the chewing ratio and the sensory evaluation value are correlated.
If the value of the chewing ratio is high, it means that the sample in the mouth is chewed until just before swallowing, and the sample is a "lump" having chewing many times in order to swallow, or chewing is repeated. It can be evaluated as having a "chewing feeling" that allows the user to enjoy the texture.
In addition, by evaluating together with the sensory evaluation value on the horizontal axis of the graph, for example, since the plots of frozen muscat (after 5 minutes of thawing) and frozen muscat jelly are close to each other, the textures of both are very similar. It can be determined that there is. In such a case, the present invention can be used as an evaluation method when preparing a jelly similar to real Muscat.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is difficult to evaluate the sensation of lumpiness or solidity when eating food by the conventional instrument measurement method, and there is no objective / quantitative evaluation method. rice field. By using the evaluation method according to the present invention, it is possible to evaluate and compare the texture such as the lumpy feeling of foods in the market, and it can be effectively utilized when investigating the needs and trends of consumers. It also serves as an indicator in the design of new food products.
Furthermore, the lumpy texture is strongly related to the texture of the fruit, and how close the simulated pulp food (simulated pulp jelly, etc.) prepared to imitate the texture of the fruit is to the texture of the fruit itself. It can also be used as an index to evaluate.

Claims (2)

It is a texture evaluation method that quantitatively evaluates the texture of foods that require chewing during eating.
A texture evaluation method for obtaining the ratio of the chewing time to the total eating time of a sample by a subject, wherein the total eating time is the duration from the start time of chewing to the end time of swallowing . The texture evaluation method according to claim 1, wherein the total feeding time and the chewing time are measured by myoelectric potential measurement.

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