An update about artificial mastication

Abstract

The authors want to thank O. François (University of Auvergne) for his involvement in the development of the AM2 apparatus and in preparing the figures; and P. Riordan for English revisionDeveloping masticatory apparatus, chewing robots or an artificial mouth is an old but ever more important goal in food science, nutrition or dental research fields, as reflected by the number of existing digital or biomechanical systems. Whatever the objective of the approach, basic knowledge of the physiology of mastication, adaptation and neurophysiological control is absolutely needed before conceiving an apparatus. Obviously, the final step in the development of a mastication simulator is its validation before performing food or food bolus characterization. This validation step is imperative to avoid biased interpretation and can be performed through in vivo–in vitro comparison of particle size distributions in food boluses obtained after normal mastication. This kind of validated machine offers the chance to produce boluses for other related uses such as nutrient bioaccessibility or digestion studies, for example. Such an apparatus can also be employed to simulate different dental states or ageing condition

Human oral processing and texture profile analysis parameters: Bridging the gap between the sensory evaluation and the instrumental measurements

“…As Bourne () says, instruments measure only one aspect of the texture which is a multifaceted. Recently, many masticating machines have been created trying to analyze the texture as a whole (Peyron & Woda, ), and if the motion of such instruments faithfully mimic human mastication, then analysis of mastication become possible, in comparison the simple uniaxial compression employed in TPA seems wholly insufficient for such a purpose. However, no systematic analysis of mimicking mastication has yet been carried out.…”

A review of the approaches to predict the ease of swallowing and post-swallow residues

“…Several in vitro models have been developed to study the the oral preparatory 110 phase of swallowing (Peyron and Woda, 2016). These studies related the effort required for mastication of several model and real foods to the final particle size distribution.…”

Perception and measurement of food texture: Solid foods

“…Although instrumental compression is used to understand food texture it does not incorporate the somatic sensory system in the oral cavity consisting of mechanoreceptors, thermoreceptors, nociceptors, proprioceptors, periodontal receptors, and so on (Engelen & van der Bilt, ). The most important reason why the instrumental measurement cannot be correlated well may be the absence of receptors and saliva and flavor (see Section 4.5) in the classical instrumental measurement (Peyron & Woda, ; Salles et al, ). Even in the mechanics, the complex manipulation of foods in oral processing is not a simple compression but mixed mode of compression and shear.…”

“…If the biting speed changes during the mastication process, when and how is the “firmness” judged? These physiological questions related with mechanical measurements have been studied extensively in physiological and neurophysiological research fields (Peyron & Woda, ; Woda, Mishellany, & Peyron, ).…”

“…Physiological measurement of mastication cycle numbers, sequence duration time, masticatory frequency, vertical and lateral amplitudes, and closing velocity which are finely adjusted to food characteristics and behavior in the mouth during mastication could be useful for texture studies. The adjustment is governed by a continuous control by the central nervous system to which the peripheral information from the mouth is conveyed (Hiiemae, ; Peyron & Woda, ).…”