In humans, oral food consumption is by far the most important point where food's organoleptic properties can be perceived and can elicit sensory pleasure. It is also the ultimate stage of the food ...supply chain and the beginning of the food disintegration and digestion process. However, in regard to the influence of ageing on food oral processing, this topic has been mainly investigating through mastication, whereas salivation remains largely unexplored. The present experiment aimed at studying the impact of normal ageing on salivary flow taking into account the dental status and the number of drugs taken by the elderly people. This was achieved by comparing resting and stimulated salivary flows of young versus healthy elderly adults (i.e., autonomous elderly people without acute pathology). Ninety‐three young adults (22–55 years old) and 84 elderly people (70–92 years old) underwent a measurement of resting and stimulated salivary flows and an oral examination (teeth counting; functional unit counting i.e., counting occluding tooth pairs). The present study showed an average 38.5% reduction of resting salivary flow and 38.0% reduction of stimulated salivary flow in healthy elderly people compared to young adults. This reduction was observed independently of the dental status and drug intake: elderly people presented reduced salivary flow even if they did not take any drugs or if their dental status was similar to the one of the young adults. The results also highlight a large inter‐individual variability both in young and elderly adults.
Practical Applications
During oral food consumption, saliva plays a key role in the acceptance of food and beverage by modulating the perception of texture, taste and aroma, as well as providing eating comfort by assisting the food breakdown process into a bolus that can be safely swallowed. However, in regard to the influence of ageing on food oral processing, the present results demonstrate a reduced salivary flow in healthy elderly people. Consequently, there is a need for developing foods tailored to the salivary capacities of elderly people aside from the efforts put into the development of foods tailored to the mastication and swallowing abilities of this population. In fact, in the context of an ageing population, the development of products meeting an elderly person's functional capacities becomes a major challenge for the food industry as well as for society.
Several studies demonstrated that oral health impairment, such as tooth loss or a decrease in salivary flow might lead elderly people to reduce their meat intake. The present study assessed the ...impact of culinary processes liable to improve meat texture and smooth down meat oral processing, in order to fulfil the oral capacities of elderly people. Four culinary processes were selected: cooking bag, blade tenderizer, marinade and low-temperature cooking. A panel of 40 elderly participants with good and poor dental status were asked to assess 5 chicken breast samples, 5 roast beef samples and 4 beefsteak samples prepared according to different process conditions by using an “oral comfort” questionnaire. Results highlighted the fact that oral impairment may alter food bolus formation as well as texture perception while eating meat in elderly people. Furthermore, they revealed that easy-to-do culinary processes may improve meat tenderness and juiciness as well as smooth down food bolus formation, in particular for the roast beef.
•Easy-to do culinary techniques improved significantly oral comfort when eating meat.•Oral health impairments do not seem to have an impact on oral comfort assessment.•Advices on meat preparation should be given to elderly people willing to eat meat.
Food consumption is by far the most important point where food's organoleptic properties can be perceived and can elicit sensory pleasure. Ageing is often accompanied by oral impairments. Those ...impairments may impact food perception by changing texture perception and the release of flavor components, which have a significant impact on food acceptability. The present study aimed at evaluating the impact of oral health on the perception of food comfortability in an elderly population. This was achieved by asking elderly people with a good oral health and elderly people with poor oral health to rate six cereal products and six meat products using a food comfortability questionnaire. Thirty‐seven and 35 elderly people (65–87 years old) underwent either a cereal or meat session, respectively. The present study showed very few effects of dental and saliva status on food perception. For the cereal products, a significant effect of dental status was observed for one texture descriptor and one flavor descriptor, and a significant effect of salivary status was observed for two texture descriptors and one flavor descriptor. For the meat products, a significant effect of dental status and a significant effect of salivary status were observed on one flavor descriptor. For both products, no significant impact of dental or salivary status was observed on the general perception of food oral comfort nor on food bolus formation. Future studies exploring the impact of a broader set of oral parameters and potential adapting factors are needed to further explore the results of the present study.
Practical applications
During oral food consumption, mastication, salivation, and swallowing play a key role in the acceptance of food and beverages by modulating the perception of texture, taste, and aroma, as well as providing eating comfort by assisting the food breakdown process into a bolus that can be safely swallowed. The age‐related oral impairments such as loss of teeth, decrease in salivary flow or dysphagia are known to have an impact on food consumption. However, very few products are developed to skirt those impairments. Therefore, in the context of an ageing population, there is a need to develop functional foods that meet the specific nutritional needs of the elderly population, as well as a well‐balanced flavor and texture framework. Considering the large interindividual variability observed on the elderly people, developing adapted functional foods is a major challenge for the food industry and society.
Ahhhh chocolate! Who doesn't love chocolate? The analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emanating from environment, plants, food or food ingredients has been the basis for many studies aiming ...at categorizing samples or sites. For this purpose, global VOCs profiles may be used as fingerprints of the samples, sometimes referred to as “volatilome”. In this special feature, Jean‐Luc Le Quéré and co‐workers use proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR‐MS) coupled to a time‐of‐flight (TOF) mass analyzer to classify over 200 dark chocolate samples based on their content in VOCs. The final goal was to build a model based on the PTR‐MS monitored dark chocolates volatilome that could be used to predict the four distinct sensory poles previously defined based on the flavor of cocoa from diverse origins and cultivars. Jean‐Luc Le Quéré is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Taste and Feeding Behaviour of the Institut de Recherche Agronomique (INRA) of Bourgogne‐Franche‐Comté (France). The general objective of this center is to get a better understanding of the physicochemical, molecular, cellular, behavioral and psychological mechanisms underlying sensory perception of food, eating behavior and health consequences.
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of oral impairment on chewing behaviour, food bolus properties and food comfortability during elderly consumption of model cheeses. Seventy-two ...elderly persons (aged 66 to 88) was recruited and classified into two groups according to dental status (poor vs. satisfactory). They showed a wide range of salivary flow rates whatever their dental status (stimulated: 0.2-3.8 mL min
, resting: 0.1-0.8 mL min
). Standardized bites of four model cheeses with an identical composition but different textures (soft, hard, processed and whipped) were tested. The time and number of chewing cycles required to form a bolus were measured. The rheological properties of the bolus were studied, as was saliva moistening. Food comfortability was assessed by means of a questionnaire composed of 5 sections (1-oral comfort, 2-bolus formation, 3-pain, 4-texture and 5-flavour perception). The chewing parameters measured were not modified by the oral health. However, elderly with poor dentition formed harder boluses than elderly with satisfactory dentition. Moreover, for elderly with poor dentition, the quantity of saliva incorporated into the bolus was correlated with the stimulated salivary flow rate, which was not the case for elderly with satisfactory dentition. General oral comfort and its different attributes were poorly associated with the oral health of the elderly. A multifactorial analysis performed on an average cheese showed that food comfortability is independent of changes in the hardness and moistening of the bolus, regardless of dental status. In particular, poor dental status increases the hardness of the bolus without modifying its comfortability.
During eating, foods are submitted to two main oral processes-chewing, including biting and crushing with teeth, and progressive impregnation by saliva resulting in the formation of a cohesive bolus ...and swallowing of the bolus. Texture influences the chewing behavior, including mastication and salivation, and in turn, these parameters influence texture perception and bolus formation. During this complex mouth process, flavor compounds are progressively released from the food matrix. This phenomenon is mainly dependent on the food texture, the composition and in-mouth breakdown, and on saliva impregnation and activity, but an individual's anatomical and physiological aspects characteristics should also be taken into account. This article reviews the knowledge and progresses on in-mouth processes leading to food breakdown and flavor release and affecting perception. Relationships between food texture and composition, food breakdown, oral physiology, and flavor release are developed and discussed. This review includes not only the mechanical aspects of oral physiology but also the biological aspects such as the influence of saliva composition, activity, and regulation on flavor perception. In vitro and in silico approaches are also described.
The study of food products is always a challenge due to the number of components involved and the interactions that may occur between them. Water is a particular ingredient which interacts with all ...hydrophilic compounds, although affinities may differ for limiting water amount. During this study, results obtained using 1H NMR on cake dough were compared in terms of the effects of flour type (soft or medium hard), the addition of gluten (5%–20%) and the use of soft flour fractions (flour particle fractions smaller or larger than 50 μm). T2 values and the signal intensities of different proton populations were studied as a function of the wheat protein contents of dough samples. Physicochemical characterization methods were used to better understand how the origin and particle size of flour might impact the hydration properties and mobility of a model system. Increasing the protein content in dough samples was related to an increase of the mobility of fat protons and of the least mobile proton population (relaxation times ranging from 175 to 180 ms and from 5 to 7 ms, respectively).
► We studied flours with distinct particle size distribution and protein composition. ► Water absorption abilities of fractions differ from that of the entire flour. ► The flour and gluten protein content impact on dough mobility was studied. ► Fat and solid-like components protons mobility increase with dough protein content.
The aim of the present paper was to determine, from four model cheeses differing in fat content and firmness and consumed by fourteen well characterised subjects, the respective impacts of in vivo ...aroma release, bolus rheology, chewing activity, mouth coating and salivary composition on dynamic aroma perception. The originality of the approach is that it considers all the parameters together and is able to evaluate their relative contribution using multi-block partial least square (MB-PLS) regression. The fruity aroma perception of the more hydrophilic compound (ethyl propanoate) was related to its dynamic release parameters before swallowing whereas the blue cheese aroma perception of the more hydrophobic compound (nonan-2-one) was related to its dynamic release parameters after swallowing and was highly impacted by mouth coating. Moreover the MB-PLS approach made it possible to evidence the combined effects of saliva composition and cross-modal interactions to understand why in some cases dynamic aroma perception could not be explained by dynamic in vivo aroma release data. Subjects with a low sodium content in saliva perceived fruity aroma which is not congruent with saltiness as less intense and salt- congruent (blue cheese) aroma as more intense, which was explained by their higher sensitivity to salt. Subjects with high lipolysis activity perceived fruity aroma which is not congruent to fat as less intense and fat-congruent (blue cheese) aroma as more intense, which should be explained by the link between lipolysis activity and fat sensitivity. These results could be considered for the reformulation of foods towards specific populations taking into account nutritional recommendations.
The aim of this work was to examine the influence of aroma and tasting temperature, on the detection of and difference sensitivity for fat content in cottage cheese. The detection (DetT) and ...difference (DiffT) thresholds were determined in 4 different conditions defined by a combination of two factors, each involving two variables: a nose clip (with or without) and the tasting temperature (7°C or 15°C). Forty non-trained panelists participated in this study. Thresholds were determined using two-alternative forced-choice (2-AFC) tests in ascending concentration series. Individual thresholds were calculated using the Best Estimate Threshold (BET) method.
An increase in tasting temperature induced a decrease in the DetT and DiffT, while the use of a nose clip led to an increase in both thresholds. A hierarchical cluster analysis evidenced three homogeneous subsets of subjects with contrasting sensitivity profiles: subsets 1 (n=7) and 2 (n=9) were characterized by high and low DetT and DiffT values, respectively, for all conditions, while a larger third subset (n=24) included subjects with medium thresholds values that varied from one condition to another. Unlike the other subsets, subset 3 was significantly influenced by the change in tasting temperature, whereas only subset 1 showed no sensitivity improvement when aromas were perceptible.
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