抄録
This paper proposes a texture evaluation system for nursing-care pasty foods, where an imitation tongue is utilized to reproduce human mastication environment. First, we develop an artificial mastication model composed of a movable rigid plate, the imitation tongue made of silicone, and a pressure distribution sensor. Using the model, we measure the pressure distribution data during compression test of pasty food on the imitation tongue, in order to acquire the information associated to both geometrical and mechanical characteristics. Then we investigate the relationship between the feature values of pressure distribution and the value of sensory evaluation of food texture. We show that a food texture of Cohesive is appropriately evaluated based on the average pressure.
