Mouth Texture Research Articles

Analysis of sensory and cognitive performance of generational consumers using artisan tortillas

AbstractThe objective of this research was to compare the sensory and cognitive performance of generations of consumers using artisanal tortillas. Four groups of generational consumers were evaluated (baby boomers, generation X, Y, and Z; n = 100 consumers per generational group). Three experiments were conducted: (1) use of the intensity scale, (2) determination of dominant attributes via TDS and (3) elicited emotions and memories. The results of the first experiment showed that baby boomers, generation X and Y had the best performance in terms of discrimination and consensus. The second experiment demonstrated that generation Z consumers identified dominant attributes of texture in mouth and the other generations identified corn flavor, nixtamal flavor, and sour taste attributes as dominant. Regarding the evaluation of emotions and memories, it was observed that as generations progress, more emotions, and memories were used. In this sense, generation Z was the one that used the most negative emotions and memories.Practical ApplicationsAnalyzing the generational effect can help researchers and tortilla manufacturers to the selection of generational consumer for the evaluation of artisanal, cross‐cultural, or industrialized foods.

Development of added-value culinary ingredients from fish waste: Fish bones and fish scales

Around 10% of the global fish catch (>90 million tonnes) is currently discarded, while by-products in fisheries account for up to 70% of the whole fish weight. From these, fish bones and scales represent 14–20% of by-products, which are also discarded. Therefore, there is an unmet need for valorising these by-products by transforming them into functional and nutritious ingredients. Towards this objective, we report herein different culinary processes to extract gelatine from fish scales, as well as fish flours from bones and scales, as innovative methods for waste valorisation in the food services industry. On the one hand, gelatine was extracted from demineralised and non-demineralised scales and their respective gelling and melting properties were analysed and compared in culinary elaborations. Both gelatines showed a lower melting point (23 °C) than pork gelatine (29 °C, used as control), which provided these gelatines with a smooth and creamy texture in mouth. On the other hand, financiers made of fish bone and fish scales flour were compared with those made with regular wheat-flour, resulting in no significant differences regarding their adhesiveness and springiness. These results showcase the potential of upcycling fish by-products into protein-rich value-added ingredients in the food services industry.

Multimodal Learning for Temporally Coherent Talking Face Generation With Articulator Synergy

Talking face generation is a demanding task to synthesize a high quality video with accurate lip synchronization and rhythmic head motion. Any subtle artifacts could be sensitively captured by humans and lead to poor visual quality. Existing methods tend to employ a conditional generation solution, which introduces facial landmarks to bridge the input information and output videos. However, these methods always suffer from unrealistic facial animations, because 1) they only take single-mode input, but ignore the complementarity of multimodal inputs for lip-sync improvement; 2) they only explore lip movements, but ignore the articulator synergy between lips and jaw; 3) they generate each video frame in a temporal-independent way, but ignore the temporal continuity among the entire video. To address these limitations, in this paper, we present a novel method to generate realistic and temporally coherent talking heads by considering multimodal inputs, articulator synergy, inter-frame consistency and intra-frame consistency. Firstly, for landmark prediction, a novel Multiple Synergy Network (MSN) is proposed to improve the accuracy of landmark prediction by incorporating multimodal inputs (i.e., audio and text inputs). Besides, instead of merely considering lip landmarks, we also explore the jaw movements to ensure articulator synergy among lips and jaw. Secondly, for realistic video generation, a Video Consistency Network (VCN) is proposed conditioned on the predicted landmarks. In VCN, the optical flow is adopted to model the temporal continuity between frames to ensure inter-frame consistency. Meanwhile, a mouth generation branch is proposed to enhance mouth texture and the corresponding mouth mask is employed to ensure intra-frame consistency between the mouth area and the others. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our approach exhibits excellent superiority on lip-sync and can generate photo-realistic facial animations. Project is available at http://imcc.ustc.edu.cn/project/tfgen/.

The Right Tortilla for the Right Occasion: Variation in Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Blue Maize Tortillas Based on Utilization

ABSTRACT This study examined consumers’ purchasing habits and demand in peri-urban Mexico City for three types of tortillas: i) machine-made white, ii) handmade white, and iii) handmade blue. As part of a sensory analysis, the participants rated the blue maize tortillas significantly higher across all categories (overall score, flavour, smell, texture in mouth, texture in hand, size, thickness, and colour). To explore how demand varies according to the intended use, we conducted a choice experiment using three scenarios: in-home daily use, in-home special event, and out-of-home consumption. Consumers were willing to pay (WTP) 42% more for the blue maize tortillas when eating out, but were WTP less for daily in-home consumption. Participants reported limited access to blue maize tortillas and insufficient knowledge about product availability. Findings suggest a considerable demand-side opportunity for expansion of the blue maize market; however, limitations on the supply side are likely to be a major barrier.

Anti-freeze effect of Enoki mushroom extract on the quality preservation of frozen whipped cream

The alkaline extract of Enoki mushroom (Flammulina velutipes) has been shown to have ice crystal growth inhibiting activity, and its beneficial effect on the quality preservation of frozen foods is highly expected. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Enoki mushroom extract which has an ice recrystallization inhibiting activity on the quality of frozen whipped creams. Whipping creams with different milk/vegetable fat compositions were prepared. The proportion of % milk fat and % vegetable fat was given as follows; 0:37, 10:28, 20:20 and 40:0, respectively. Whipped foam samples were frozen and stored at −20 °C, then the effect of adding 0.1% Enoki mushroom extract was tested. Fresh dairy flavor and smooth melt in mouth texture was deteriorated during the course of frozen storage for 37 days, and the frequency is higher in whipped creams with high milk fat content. Addition of 0.1% Enoki mushroom extract ameliorated these quality changes and significantly retained moisture content. Microscopic observation of the internal structure of frozen foam samples by cryo-SEM revealed that the ice crystal aggregates grown in the emulsified solid phase were reduced by adding Enoki mushroom extract. GC/MS analysis of the flavor components revealed that the content of furan compounds (furfural and 2-furanmethanol) was increased by 1.7 times in control foam samples during frozen storage, whereas the furan compounds in whipped foam sample containing Enoki mushroom extract did not increase after frozen storage. Based on these findings, it is proposed that ice crystal growth at the emulsified solid phase causes the sublimation of water on the surface of frozen whipped cream and destruction of the network structure of fat globules results in the quality changes after thawing. Enoki mushroom extract was found to retard ice crystal growth in whipped cream, thus supposed to reduce the quality changes during frozen storage.

New advances in the characterization of lyophilised orally disintegrating tablets.

Orally disintegrating tablets (ODTs) produced by lyophilisation have a unique porous structure which leads to a favorable orodispersable functionality. They possess ultra-fast disintegration kinetics, have acceptable mechanical strength and give a smooth mouth texture. Only limited literature is available on the characterization of ODTs and even fewer on lyophilised tablets. The suitability of a broad range of characterization methods for lyophilised tablets was evaluated since they possess other mechanical properties compared to compressed tablets. Four ODTs with diverse properties were carefully selected and thoroughly analysed using various characterization techniques leading to a multitude of descriptors. The functionality of these four lyophilised tablets was examined and the relation between the different descriptors was evaluated using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Furthermore, μCT images of two ODTs were acquired to study the internal structure and active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) distribution inside the tablets. The important descriptors, disintegration and mechanical strength, interacted inversely indicating the importance of a well-balanced ODT formulation to achieve favorable properties. μCT data can improve the process knowledge as it yields very diverse descriptors. Ultimately, the different tablets were ranked at their performance.

Laser backscattering imaging as a non-destructive quality control technique for solid food matrices: Modelling the fibre enrichment effects on the physico-chemical and sensory properties of biscuits

This work focused on modelling the effect of fibre enrichment on the physico-chemical and sensory properties of biscuits by an image analysis of laser backscattering patterns. The study was done on four formulas where, besides the control, three fibre enrichment levels were included (5%, 10% and 20% w/w). The impact on the physico-chemical and sensory properties of biscuits was characterised according to analyses of texture, thickness, area, mass increment, density, flux of solvents (water and milk), colour, taste, mouth texture, etc. Moreover, the image analysis was carried out to collect information from the interaction of a laser with two different biscuit production chain matrices: after the mixing and forming phase (doughs) and after baking (end biscuits). That information was obtained according to the image descriptors generated from the morphology of the observed laser patterns. Both studied matrices offered different, but complementary, information about isolating the variance produced by fibre enrichment for doughs, while the variance generated by heat treatment was also recorded for biscuits. The quantitative prediction of the physico-chemical and sensory properties of biscuits improved when combining both information blocks. The impact of fibre enrichment on biscuits can be modelled by this imaging technique, which could be the basis to develop new non-destructive systems for online inspections made during cookie processing to quickly and non-destructively report physico-chemical and sensory information.

Development of a Culture-ripened Semi-hard Kishk-cheese Containing Bourghol or Semolina

In order to develop a new Kishk-based ripened semi-hard cheese, two different wheat types, namely Bourghol and Semolina, were used. The process involved adding together cereal, goat strained yogurt, starter cultures and rennin enzyme. Physicochemical parameters and sensory attributes were assessed during 4 weeks of ripening at 10°C. The results showed an increase in titratable acidity, pH and solubility index in both types of cheese over ripening period reaching final levels of 1.95%, 3.75 and 85% respectively. Free amino acids were accumulating in Semolina cheese (17.75 mg Leu/g in final product), with a sharp increase after week 2 concurring with a marked decrease in residual lactose. A higher depletion rate of residual lactose was observed for Semolina cheese (49% in Semolina vs 40% in Bourghol) (p<0.05), reflecting better utilization of lactose by LAB. Both types of cheese showed limited oxidation rates (low peroxide and TBARS values) and balanced lipolysis, where FFA formed by the latter decreased after week 2. Texture analysis showed that Kishk-cheese made using Bourghol was always harder (p<0.05) than that of Semolina. Sensory analysis showed that cheese obtained from Bourghol tends to be more yellowish, harder with closed and crumbly body, together with a grainy texture in mouth and pronounced cereal flavor, whereas cheese obtained from Semolina tends to be sour, creamy with a sticky and cohesive texture, and rich lactic, buttery and cheesy flavors. Hedonic tests showed a significant difference (p<0.05) in preference between both types of cheese where Semolina was always preferred except for odor.

Effect of Different Storage Conditions on Analytical and Sensory Quality of Thermally Processed, Milk-Based Germinated Foxtail Millet Porridge.

Foxtail millet porridge was prepared using germinated grains and milk and was evaluated for its storage stability after thermal processing at ultra-high temperatures (UHT) of 142°C for 5s and retort processing temperatures of 121.5°C for 15min. Various physical, chemical, and microbial changes of the porridge were studied for a storage period of 180days at 25±1°C. Using consumer perception and survival analysis, the predicted shelf life of the UHT treated and retort processed foxtail millet porridge samples stored at 25±1°C was found to be 186±9 days and 245±15days, respectively. Also, data from consumer liking, profiling, physical, chemical, and microbial parameters showed significant changes (P<0.05) in the thermally treated packaged porridge samples over time. As the consumer overall acceptability decreased, the detection of positive attributes (thick and uniformly colored texture and appearance; grainy mouth texture; caramel taste and aroma) in the porridge decreased, while the detection of negative attributes (uneven, decolored, and curdled texture and appearance; sticky mouth texture; cooked, sour and off smell; cooked, sour and off taste) increased. The present study could establish a significant difference (P<0.05) in the storage induced properties of UHT and retort processed porridge samples. The analytical evaluation of foxtail millet porridge found that UHT treated porridge was better in quality, but consumers preferred retort processed porridge. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The quality and sensory attributes, evaluated for UHT treated and retort processed porridge samples during the storage period of 180 days, were found to be contradictory. Based on the results of CATA sensory analysis, the shelf life of UHT treated and retort processed porridge samples was predicted to be more than 6 months. Therefore, both UHT treatment and retort processing can be effectively applied to prepare a ready to eat milk based porridge using germinated foxtail millet grains.

تأثیر افزودن پوست انار، صمغ گوار و آنزیم همیسلولاز بر خصوصیات کیک اسفنجی فاقد گلوتن بر پایه نشاسته گندم

کیک اسفنجی یکی از فرآورده‌های پر تقاضا و پرمصرف غلات بوده اما به‌دلیل داشتن گلوتن برای بیماران سلیاکی مناسب نیست. به همین جهت امروزه توجه به محصولات فاقد گلوتن گسترش یافته است. از طرفی غنی‌سازی کیک‌ها با فیبرهای رژیمی و آنتی‌اکسیدان‌های طبیعی، ارزش غذایی این محصولات را افزایش می‌دهد. بنابراین هدف از این تحقیق بررسی تأثیر جایگزینی پوست انار (12-0%)، صمغ گوار (5/1-0%) و آنزیم همی‌سلولاز (ppm90-0) بر ویژگی‌های فیزیکوشیمیایی و حسی کیک اسفنجی فاقد گلوتن بر پایه نشاسته گندم است. بدین منظور از طرح آماری روش سطح پاسخ طرح مرکب مرکزی استفاده گردید. نتایج آزمون‌های مختلف نشان داد که با افزایش درصد جایگزینی پوست انار در فرمولاسیون، دانسیته و شاخص‌های رنگی b*و L* کاهش و رطوبت، درصد بازدارندگی رادیکال DPPH، سفتی و شاخص رنگی a* افزایش یافت. از طرفی افزایش درصد جایگزینی صمغ باعث افزایش دانسیته و سفتی شد. افزودن آنزیم سبب کاهش روشنایی پوسته و افزایش دانسیته گردید. در ادامه خصوصیات کیک بهینه (یعنی کیکی که سفتی و دانسیته آن مشابه شاهد باشد) شامل 1/9 درصد پوست انار و 56/0 درصد صمغ گوار و فاقد آنزیم با کیک شاهد مقایسه گردید و نتایج نشان داد، خصوصیات فیزیکی، شیمیایی و بافتی کیک بهینه تا حد زیادی به کیک شاهد مشابه بوده و تفاوت اصلی در خواص حسی ناشی از پس طعم پوست انار بوده که با استفاده از طعم دهنده‌ها قابل اصلاح است.

Sensory evaluation and glycaemic index of a food developed with flour from whole (pulp and peel) overripe banana (Musa cavendishii) discards

This study evaluated the use of flour from overripe whole bananas (OWBF), which are generally discarded, as an ingredient of muffins. Products with OWBF in 400 and 500 g/kg of total flour were highly acceptable, obtaining an average rating of 5.6 points for odour, 5.7 points for colour, 5.2 points for taste, and 5.6 points for mouth texture, in a 7 points hedonic evaluation (1: dislike so much, to 7: like so much) done by non-trained panelists. Though OWBF has a high levels of dietary fibre (181.9 g/kg) and resistant starch (35 g/kg), a low total starch content (57 g/kg) and high simple sugars content were observed (714.2 g/kg of carbohydrates were glucose plus fructose). The evaluation of the glycaemic response to the consumption of a muffin made with OWBF showed no differences with white bread (reference food), with a glycaemic index of 84 ± 38 for the muffin. The glycaemic load (GL) of 50 g portion of muffin with OWBF was 15, which classified the product as intermediate GL. Then, the use of OWBF in muffins is possible and acceptable, and the consumption of OWFB does not affect adversely the glycaemic response in overweight people.

Synthesizing Obama

Given audio of President Barack Obama, we synthesize a high quality video of him speaking with accurate lip sync, composited into a target video clip. Trained on many hours of his weekly address footage, a recurrent neural network learns the mapping from raw audio features to mouth shapes. Given the mouth shape at each time instant, we synthesize high quality mouth texture, and composite it with proper 3D pose matching to change what he appears to be saying in a target video to match the input audio track. Our approach produces photorealistic results.

Investigating the relationship between the perceived thickness of the chocolate pudding in sensory and instrumental analysis

Sensory evaluation of food materials is an important factor to choose and even produce new formulations. Being time consuming, results in being difficult to interpret and the necessity to educate specialists make these methods kind of impractical. In this study, we have made an effort to introduce physical properties as a substitute for sensory evaluations in a semi solid food such as chocolate pudding. Higher reliability, reproducibility and higher pace are among some of the advantages of instrumental measurements. Thus, if sensory evaluation can be predicted based on physical properties solely, besides increasing the inspection pace, they would be available to be used online. The obtained results can also be used in designing new products for special consumers such as the dysphasia patients. The results showed that parameters such as shear viscosity, plastic viscosity, yield stress, extensional viscosity, apparent modulus and adhesive force can be used to design and produce new materials; they make sense beside each other though. In this way, the products which have been designed for the patients with swallowing difficulties should have suitable texture in mouth and also good swallow ease.

Sensory profile development of Oaxaca cheese and relationship with physicochemical parameters

A sensory profile of Oaxaca cheese was developed. To represent both industrial and artisanal Oaxaca cheese, 3 types of cheese were manufactured under controlled conditions: 2 with pasteurized milk using a mesophilic lactic acid bacteria culture (Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis and L. lactis ssp. cremoris) and a thermophilic lactic acid bacteria culture (Streptococcus salivarius ssp. thermophilus), and a third with naturally acidified raw milk. The cheeses were evaluated by a panel of 11 trained judges. Additionally, chemical composition and instrumental color parameters were determined, an instrumental texture profile analysis was performed, and volatile compounds were identified by solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The sensory profile developed includes 43 descriptors, of which 13 are discriminant among these 3 cheese types. Descriptors include visual attribute waxy; tactile (manual) attributes moist and oily; orthonasal aroma attributes empyreumatic and cow; basic taste attribute salty; mouth texture attributes chewable, gummy, adherent, fibrous, moist, and fatty; and auditory attribute squeaky. A strong correlation was found between specific sensory data and physicochemical parameters measured by instrumental and chemical methods.

Quality of Red Sweet Pepper Fruit Treated with 1-MCP during a Simulated Post-harvest Handling Chain

Red pepper fruit (Capsicum annuum L. cv Setubal) were treated with air (control) or 900 ppb 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) for 24 h at 20°C. The fruit were packed in perforated polypropylene and stored for 4.5 days at 8°C (storage), 3 days at 20°C (simulated retail display), and 4.5 days in domestic refrigerator at 5.6°C. Fruit stored continuously at 20°C served as reference of respiration rate and ethylene production. The fruit quality, storage disorders, and physiological behavior in this simplified post-harvest handling chain and the possible effects of the CO2 accumulated during 1-MCP treatments were particularly studied. The critical points of the simulated post-harvest chain as regards fruit quality were the retail display stage at 20°C, the inhibition of ethylene as a side effect of 1-MCP, and, to a lesser extent the domestic refrigeration phase. Simulated retail display exacerbated shriveling and weight loss, and negatively affected aroma, finger texture and, to a lesser extent, fruit taste, and mouth texture. The 3% increase in the CO2 accumulated in both treatments resulted in a transient increase in the respiration rate, flesh and juice hue angle, glutamic and ascorbic acids; an increase in succinic acid (higher in 1-MCP treated fruit), and a transient decrease in citric acid, juice lightness and chroma. Compared with the control, the 1-MCP prevented the increase in skin chroma during the storage phase, the upsurge of ethylene production during the retail display phase, and doubled the fumaric acid levels in the refrigerator phase. 1-MCP may have increased the fruit susceptibility to shriveling and weight loss and, to a greater extent, pitting and gray mold rot in the domestic refrigerator. In brief, 1-MCP cannot be recommended for extending non-climacteric pepper shelf-life.

Utilization of soya protein as an alternative protein source in Oreochromis niloticus diet: Growth performance, feed utilization, proximate composition and organoleptic characteristics

The effect of replacing fish protein with soya protein in tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) diets was examined. Three isoproteic (35%) diets containing 0% (FD); 50% (MD) and 100% (SD) fish protein substituted by soya protein were formulated. Fish (initial weight = 11.56 ± 4.22 g) was fed with experimental diets for 180 days. Results showed that the best growth was achieved with fish fed FD. Growth parameters such as final body weight, body weight gain and specific growth rate decreased with increased dietary soya protein. In contrast, no significant differences were found in feed and protein utilization parameters. For carcass trait, ash, crude fat, and energy varied significantly with soya protein incorporation in fish diet. Concerning organoleptic characteristics, odour and texture in mouth were not affected by incorporation of soya protein in diet. In contrast, texture, flavour, and general appreciate note were affected by dietary treatment. Partial substitution of fish protein by soya protein gave more pronounced sweet flavour.

Utilization of soya protein as an alternative protein source in Oreochromis niloticus diet: Growth performance, feed utilization, proximate composition and organoleptic characteristics

The effect of replacing fish protein with soya protein in tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) diets was examined. Three isoproteic (35%) diets containing 0% (FD); 50% (MD) and 100% (SD) fish protein substituted by soya protein were formulated. Fish (initial weight = 11.56 ± 4.22 g) was fed with experimental diets for 180 days. Results showed that the best growth was achieved with fish fed FD. Growth parameters such as final body weight, body weight gain and specific growth rate decreased with increased dietary soya protein. In contrast, no significant differences were found in feed and protein utilization parameters. For carcass trait, ash, crude fat, and energy varied significantly with soya protein incorporation in fish diet. Concerning organoleptic characteristics, odour and texture in mouth were not affected by incorporation of soya protein in diet. In contrast, texture, flavour, and general appreciate note were affected by dietary treatment. Partial substitution of fish protein by soya protein gave more pronounced sweet flavour.

Occurrence of germanium in smithsonite and in mine waters: John Hughes Müller, of the University of Pennsylvania ( Ind. Eng. Chem., 1924, 16, 604–605)

A sensory profile of Oaxaca cheese was developed. To represent both industrial and artisanal Oaxaca cheese, 3 types of cheese were manufactured under controlled conditions: 2 with pasteurized milk using a mesophilic lactic acid bacteria culture (Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis and L. lactis ssp. cremoris) and a thermophilic lactic acid bacteria culture (Streptococcus salivarius ssp. thermophilus), and a third with naturally acidified raw milk. The cheeses were evaluated by a panel of 11 trained judges. Additionally, chemical composition and instrumental color parameters were determined, an instrumental texture profile analysis was performed, and volatile compounds were identified by solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The sensory profile developed includes 43 descriptors, of which 13 are discriminant among these 3 cheese types. Descriptors include visual attribute waxy; tactile (manual) attributes moist and oily; orthonasal aroma attributes empyreumatic and cow; basic taste attribute salty; mouth texture attributes chewable, gummy, adherent, fibrous, moist, and fatty; and auditory attribute squeaky. A strong correlation was found between specific sensory data and physicochemical parameters measured by instrumental and chemical methods.

Occurrence of germanium in smithsonite and in mine waters: John Hughes Müller, of the University of Pennsylvania ( Ind. Eng. Chem., 1924, 16, 604–605)

A sensory profile of Oaxaca cheese was developed. To represent both industrial and artisanal Oaxaca cheese, 3 types of cheese were manufactured under controlled conditions: 2 with pasteurized milk using a mesophilic lactic acid bacteria culture (Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis and L. lactis ssp. cremoris) and a thermophilic lactic acid bacteria culture (Streptococcus salivarius ssp. thermophilus), and a third with naturally acidified raw milk. The cheeses were evaluated by a panel of 11 trained judges. Additionally, chemical composition and instrumental color parameters were determined, an instrumental texture profile analysis was performed, and volatile compounds were identified by solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The sensory profile developed includes 43 descriptors, of which 13 are discriminant among these 3 cheese types. Descriptors include visual attribute waxy; tactile (manual) attributes moist and oily; orthonasal aroma attributes empyreumatic and cow; basic taste attribute salty; mouth texture attributes chewable, gummy, adherent, fibrous, moist, and fatty; and auditory attribute squeaky. A strong correlation was found between specific sensory data and physicochemical parameters measured by instrumental and chemical methods.