きざみ食をモデルとしたゾル‐ゲル混合系試料の食べやすさに及ぼす，ゲルの大きさの影響

Abstract

We investigated the physical properties, sensory characteristics and electromyography (EMG) of mixed sol-gel samples as a model for minced food to find how the difference in gel size affected the ease of eating. Mixed sol-gel samples were prepared by agar gel with a thickening liquid in three different gel sizes. The textural measurements show that the hardness of the samples was larger and the cohesion was lower with increasing gel size. The adhesiveness of the samples increased with increasing gel size, apart from the sample with the largest spherical gel. The result of sensory evaluation shows that cohesion in the mouth and ease of swallowing were dependent on the adhesiveness, and that firmness in the mouth was not dependent on the hardness of a sample. The numbers of chews required for a sample was not dependent on the gel size. The masticatory electromyographic measurements show that there was difference for each individual subject, with no significant differences among the samples.Samples that were thick with the sol did not need mincing if they were tender, and the size of the gel had less effect on the ease of eating than its hardness.