Ann Rehabil Med.  2012 Dec;36(6):776-784.

The Effect of Rheological Properties of Foods on Bolus Characteristics After Mastication

• Hwang J
• Kim DK
• Bae JH
• Kang SH
• Seo KM
• Kim BK
• Lee SY

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effects of physical properties of foods on the changes of viscosity and mass as well as the particle size distribution after mastication. METHOD: Twenty subjects with no masticatory disorders were recruited. Six grams of four solid foods of different textures (banana, tofu, cooked-rice, cookie) were provided, and the viscosity and mass after 10, 20, and 30 cycles of mastication and just before swallowing were measured. The physical properties of foods, such as hardness, cohesiveness, and adhesiveness, were measured with a texture analyzer. Wet sieving and laser diffraction were used to determine the distribution of food particle size.
RESULTS
When we measured the physical characteristics of foods, the cookie was the hardest food, and the banana exhibited marked adhesiveness. Tofu and cooked-rice exhibited a highly cohesive nature. As the number of mastication cycles increased, the masses of all foods were significantly increased (p<0.05), and the viscosity was significantly decreased in the case of banana, tofu, and cooked-rice (p<0.05). The mass and viscosity of all foods were significantly different between the foods after mastication (p<0.05). Analyzing the distribution of the particle size, that of the bolus was different between foods. However, the curves representing the particle size distribution for each food were superimposable for most subjects.
CONCLUSION
The viscosity and particle size distribution of the bolus were different between solid foods that have different physical properties. Based on this result, the mastication process and food bolus formation were affected by the physical properties of the food.

Keyword

Swallowing; Rheology; Viscosity; Mastication; Particle size

MeSH Terms

Adhesiveness
Deglutition
Hardness
Mastication
Musa
Particle Size
Rheology
Soy Foods
Viscosity

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Measurement of physical properties of foods using a texture analyzer, TA. XTPlus® (Stable Micro Systems Ltd., Surrey, UK).

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  Fig. 2 The viscosity of each bolus was measured with a viscometer SV-10/100® (A&D Co., Tokyo, Japan).

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  Fig. 3 Laser diffraction S3500® (Microtrac Inc., Largo, USA) was used to analyze distributions of particle size in the food boluses.

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  Fig. 4 The mass change of the food according to the number of mastication cycles.

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  Fig. 5 The viscosity change of the food according to the number of mastication cycles. We were unable to measure the viscosities of cooked-rice and cookie after ten cycles mastication and cookie after 20 cycles mastication because they exceeded 12,000 cP, the upper limit of the measurable range of instrument.

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  Fig. 6 Distribution of particle size measured by wet sieving.

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  Fig. 7 Distribution of particle size for four different foods measured by laser diffraction.

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