More Science News
Scientists Explain The Toxic Compounds In Tomatoes
Engineers Create Electronic Tongue That Lets You Taste In VR
New Tech Products Change The Way We Grocery Shop
Image Source: Janet Jones Kendalla
At the Food Industry Association's Midwinter Executive Conference held in Florida this year, food tech companies showcased their innovations. Brain Corp improved upon robotics machinery that scans inventory with updated mechanics allowing machines to pick up items from shelves, freeing hands on the floor so employees can focus on customer-facing tasks. Badge, the winner of the FMItech Pitch Competition last year, showcased its mobile wallet platform that allows grocery store staff to connect with shoppers and collect data on purchasing habits without users downloading any apps or creating any accounts. Honorable mentions include VusionGroup's digital tagging system with electronic shelf labels and Augmodo, which offers a SmartBadge that automates item scanning for employees.
The Textbooks Were Wrong About How Your Tongue Works
Image Source: Alamy
We taste sweetness mostly at the front of our tongues and bitterness at the back, right? Wrong. The widely disseminated "tongue map" shown above is from a 1901 study conducted by German scientist David Hanig. Decades of research have since debunked this myth, according to an in-depth review published this month in The New England Journal of Medicine. Also wrong: the notion that taste is limited to the mouth. Taste receptors are found all over the body, in the gastrointestinal tract, liver, pancreas, lungs, thyroid, fat cells, muscle cells, and the brain. I'm waiting for a study to reveal that we have taste receptors on our eyeballs. That would lend some scientific weight to the old adage "We eat with our eyes first."
Food Scientists Parse The Flavor Profiles Of Edible Ants
Image Source: Changqi Liu
Fresh out of lemon wedges for your seafood? You can substitute common black ants, according to Changqi Liu, a food science professor at San Diego State University. Black ants are full of formic acid, which gives them a tart flavor profile similar to lemon juice and vinegar. Liu and his team recently analyzed the odor profiles of several ant species, finding that Mexican chicatana ants contain aldehydes and pyrazines that bring fatty, nutty, roasted aromas to foods, and weaver ants contain pyrazines and pyrroles that bring sweet, caramel-like flavors. Many cultures consider ants a delicacy, and if you make it Pujol, one of Mexico City's finest restaurants, you may unknowingly get a taste of chicatana ants in chef Enrique Olvera's delicious mayonnaise served with steamed baby heritage corn.
Ammonium May Join Sweet, Salty, Sour, Bitter, and Umami As Sixth Basic Taste
Image Source: Robyn Beck/Getty Images
Are you familiar with Scandinavian salt licorice? Only a little sweet, this pitch-black candy has a taste that's somewhere between sour, salty, and bitter. Some call it an acquired taste, but researchers from the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences say it's a basic human taste that should join the ranks of sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. Ammonium chloride, a.k.a. salmiak salt, is the key component in Scandinavian salt licorice, and scientists say this compound activates our taste receptors as a survival mechanism. Who knows? Maybe chefs will soon be using salmiak salt to push flavor boundaries in their most avant garde dishes.
Scientists Engineer Sweet-Tasting Spoons To Enhance Sensory Perception
Image Source: filo/Getty Images
Research has already shown that the weight, color and shape of utensils can change our perception of a food's taste, including its sweetness, saltiness, and fattiness. In an attempt to produce the sensations of sugar without the calories, a team of scientists from Cornell and New York University has designed a a spoon with several bumps on its underside, creating a greater surface area to press against the tongue. Dubbed "Sugarware," the bumpy spoon is covered with ligands, molecules that bind with taste receptor proteins on the tongue, triggering a cascade of nerve signals that cause the brain to register a sensation of sweetness. A promising development for diabetics.
