Evaluations of a new food，‘Rice Gruel’，for dysphagic patients

Abstract

A new type of rice gruel was developed for dysphagic patients．ln order to evaluate the impression and texture，a questionnaire was conducted． Thirty-eight healthy young volunteers were registered as the participants in the first questionnairing．Of these 35 participated in the second questionnairing．Six dysphagic patients were selected as the subjects of the present study and submitted their replies to some of the questions． The data obtained from those who tasted the newly developed rice gruel were compared with the data obtained from those who tasted two types of conventional Japanese rice gruel； zengayu (polished rice content 20％) and gobugayu (polished rice content 10％). The texture of the three types of rice gruel was measured at 20℃．The hardness of the newly developed rice gruel ［(0.30±0.01)×10³N/m²］ was significantly lower than that of the two types of conventional Japanese rice gruel ［zengayu (6.62±0.32)×10³N/m²；gobugayu (0.44±0.02)× 10³N/m²］．The adhesiveness of the newly developed rice gruel ［(1.55±0.15)×10J/m³］was significantly lower than that of the two types of conventional Japanese rice gruel ［zengayu (104.08 ±3.73)×10J/m³； gobugayu (7.53±0.49)×10J/m³］．Cohesiveness of the newly developed rice gruel (0.52± 0.02) was significantly lower than that of zengayu （0.62 ±0.01） and significantly higher than that of gobugayu (0.30 ±0.04). The temperature of rice gruel was adjusted to 55℃ so that its texture could be accurately evaluated at the temperature when it was usually ingested．The results obtained in this experiment were similar to those obtained in the experiment carried out at 20℃ except for the significant difference in cohesiveness between the newly developed rice gruel and zengayu． According to the replies obtained from the healthy young volunteers， there were no differences in swallowability and residual sensation in the mouth between the newly developed rice gruel and gobugayu． However，they reported that the newly deveioped rice gruel was inferior to gobugayu in visual， tactile and gustatory aspects and that the new gruel was superior to zengayu in tactile aspect including the feeling in the throat， palatability，swallowability and residual sensation in the mouth． The dysphagic patients reported that the new rice gruel was superior to the two types of Japanese conventional rice gruel in swallowability and the residual sensation in the mouth．The results obtained in this questionnairing suggested the higher swallowability of the newly developed rice gruel.