A soft machine system (texture analyzer equipped with an artificial tongue) was developed to analyze the occurrence of fractures in soft food gels compressed between the tongue and hard palate. Artificial tongues were newly designed with a modulus similar to that of a somewhat tense human tongue, using transparent urethane gels. A model of soft foods that are easy or difficult to crush with the tongue was prepared using gellan gums at different concentrations. A piece of gellan gum gel was uniaxially compressed on an artificial tongue with the flat probe of a texture analyzer. The food gel and artificial tongue were deformed, leading to the fracturing of food gels alone. During compression-induced fracture, the softer food gels exhibited a lower force, lower displacement, and lower true stress than the harder gels on all artificial tongues. The fracture probability of gellan gels was lower for the combination of harder food gels and softer artificial tongues, as softer materials can deform to a larger extent. Fracture displacement of food gels was increased as the modulus of the artificial tongue decreased; however, the fracture force did not differ significantly. These results suggest that an artificial tongue with elastic modulus values similar to those of the actual human tongue is suitable for determining the fracture behavior of foods during compression between the tongue and hard palate. Demands for nursing care foods with mechanical properties that are adequately modified for easy tongue fracture are increasing in the aged population. Consumers of such nursing care foods have lower tongue strength and chewing capability compared to healthy adults, and thus perceive texture differently. As a result, sensory evaluation using a healthy panel may not be appropriate to design care foods. A soft machine equipped with different artificial tongues can be used to obtain numerical values of fracture properties for foodstuffs by mimicking the natural oral process in humans with varying tongue strengths. If an appropriate artificial tongue is used, only soft foods will be fractured between the artificial tongue and a hard material. Without use of a texture analyzer, manual compression testing of foods using the artificial tongue instead of non-deformable materials results in more realistic fractures that mimics real-life scenarios. Therefore, various kinds of foods can be qualitatively tested table-side or in a residential kitchen using these soft materials as personalized artificial tongues. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

中文翻译：

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使用配备透明人造舌头的软机器对软结冷胶进行压缩测试

开发了一种软机器系统（配备人工舌头的质地分析仪）来分析压缩在舌头和硬腭之间的软食品凝胶中断裂的发生情况。人工舌头是新设计的，其模数类似于有点紧张的人类舌头，使用透明的氨基甲酸乙酯凝胶。使用不同浓度的结冷胶制备了容易或难以用舌头压碎的软食物模型。用质地分析仪的扁平探头将一块结冷胶凝胶单轴压缩在人造舌头上。食物凝胶和人造舌头变形，导致单独的食物凝胶破裂。在压缩引起的断裂期间，较软的食物凝胶在所有人造舌头上表现出比较硬的凝胶更低的力、更低的位移和更低的真实应力。对于较硬的食物凝胶和较软的人造舌头的组合，结冷胶的断裂概率较低，因为较软的材料可以更大程度地变形。随着人工舌模量的降低，食物凝胶的断裂位移增加；然而，断裂力没有显着差异。这些结果表明，弹性模量值与实际人类舌头相似的人造舌头适用于确定舌头和硬腭之间压缩期间食物的断裂行为。在老年人口中，对机械性能经过充分修饰以应对易断舌的护理食品的需求不断增加。与健康成人相比，食用此类护理食品的消费者的舌头力量和咀嚼能力较低，从而以不同的方式感知纹理。因此，使用健康小组进行感官评估可能不适用于设计护理食品。配备不同人工舌头的软机器可用于通过模拟具有不同舌头强度的人类自然口腔过程来获得食品的断裂特性数值。如果使用合适的人工舌，人工舌和硬质材料之间只有软质食物才会断裂。在不使用质地分析仪的情况下，使用人造舌头代替不可变形材料对食物进行手动压缩测试，会产生更逼真的骨折，模拟现实生活场景。因此，可以使用这些柔软的材料作为个性化的人造舌头，在餐桌旁或住宅厨房中对各种食物进行定性测试。本文受版权保护。版权所有。