Food, Global Health 3 min

An artificial mouth to understand the oral processing of soft foods

PRESS RELEASE - Researchers at INRAE have developed an artificial mouth to reproduce and better understand the processing of soft foods. The device is based on anatomical data collected at the Fujita Health University and features a silicone tongue that contracts using compressed air to mimic the movements of the human tongue. The results were published on October 15 in the journal Scientific Reports.

Published on 15 October 2024

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With a rising world population and ageing demographics, one of the challenges for the food industry is to be able to offer innovative products meeting the needs of people suffering from age-related pathologies, such as sarcopenia or problems with salivation or swallowing.

Current in vitro models do not always accurately reproduce the anatomy of the mouth or tongue movements and are therefore of limited help when developing food tailored to the specific needs of different populations.

In this context, researchers from INRAE and their Japanese counterparts at Fujita Health University have collaborated to design the first artificial mouth with a tongue that can be programmed to simulate the contractions and movements observed in vivo. The tongue is made from a silicone designed to reproduce the elasticity, wettability and roughness of the human tongue. It includes three cavities that can be inflated and deflated by compressed air to accurately reproduce the movements observed in humans via ultrasound imaging.

3D image of the in vitro system: the tongue moves thanks to 3 inflatable and deflatable cavities / INRAE – Alejandro Avila-Sierra

This cutting-edge technology was tested with three commercially available soft foods: a cream dessert, a chocolate mousse and a chocolate fondant. The food boli obtained with the artificial mouth were very similar to the in vivo data collected on healthy participants, in terms of firmness, adhesive and cohesive properties and viscosity.

This device is a new asset for studying the dynamics of food oral processing, and researchers have already begun work to include mastication in subsequent designs.

Reference

Avila-Sierra A., Bugarin-Castillo Y., Glumac M. et al. (2024). A first-of-its-kind 3D biomimetic artificial mouth capable of reproducing the oral processing of soft foods. Scientific Reports, DOI :https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-73629-9

This research was carried out as part of the European ‘SENSINGTech’ project, coordinated by INRAE (Marco Ramaioli), and funded by the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship, awarded to Alejandro Avila-Sierra. The project was launched on 1 September 2022 and ended on 31 August 2024. Ultrasound measurements on humans were obtained from the QUSToFood project funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR-17-CE21-004).

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