Applying the advances in science, researchers are making sure that we have more mouths to feed. We are not talking about cloning here.
Scientists have always been fascinated about building an electronic tongue or a robotic tasting device for use in the improvement of food safety and improving food quality. But before robots can learn to taste food, they will have to chew it first.
French scientist, Gaelle Arvisenet and his team have developed an artificial mouth that can chew apples just like you and me. In fact, most people these days, due to increasing dental problems caused by consumption of processed foods, may not be able to chew properly, but the artificial mouth has firm and strong teeth and it can chew hard foods with ease.
Researches in Nantes, France, have created an artificial mouth that according to them, “Mimics all the first vital steps of human digestion, which are chewing, releasing saliva and breaking down food.”
Researchers say that this could be used as a robotic taste tester to perhaps improve the flavor of food.
Previously, there had been artificial mouths designed, but they were only capable of testing soft foods or for testing the teeth of a robot. However, this is the first time anyone has done anything that relates to hard foods and human digestion.
Digestion starts in the mouth and chewing is an integral part of digestion. This is the reason we were told to count our chews when we were young. Teeth begin the digestion process by breaking down food into small pieces mechanically. If food is not chewed, bigger chunks get into the stomach and undigested food can feed bacteria, causing serious problems.
There are several factors involved in the release of flavor and aromatic compounds in the human mouth. Everything from the chewing, the rate of breakdown of food as well as the temperature, affect the flavor and smell of the food before it gets swallowed.
In order to perfect this mimicking act, researchers had to create a machine that could do most of the above.
This “munching device,” as it is called follows all the steps of human digestion process. It is sized much bigger than the normal human mouth, in fact it is five times bigger. Using an electrical element, this mouth is kept at a constant temperature of 37 degrees C. The internal surfaces are coated with a plastic used for implants and which is chemically resistant.
The top of the artificial mouth chamber, which is the ceiling and the bottom, which is the floor, are attached to different speed motors. Food is placed on the revolving floor of this “mouth,” while the spiky teeth on the ceiling move up and down, crushing the food on the floor. The rotation and compression action enables the same process the food undergoes in the human mouth. The whole process is made more realistic with the addition of artificial saliva which comes through a pipe at the base of the chamber. Helium is also supplied through another tube and it flows though the mouth to provide the effect of breathing.
Researchers studied apple chewing by the device as compared to the humans, and the pulp from both was studied and it was found that the results were very close.
Arvisenet said, “Our aim was not to reproduce the human mouth conditions exactly, but to reproduce the result of mastication.”
With devices like this, the future may see humans getting lazier and using devices to chew for them.