Magnetic Food Texture Sensor Incorporating Human Tooth Structure

Abstract

Food texture plays an important role in food preferences, and contributes to health through chewing and safety during swallowing in the elderly and children. Sensory evaluation by human panelists is a general method for evaluating food texture. However, sensory evaluation is qualitative, and is affected by individual differences and environmental factors. Commercially available food texture instruments are equipped with only one load cell, and are not sufficiently sensitive for detailed food texture measurements. In this study, we present a magnetic food texture sensor, which has a structure that mimics a human tooth. The principle of the sensor is based on changes in magnetic field strength. By using giant magnetoresistive elements and inductors, the sensor measures a load and vibration occurs on the contact surface. The sensor was used to experimentally assess four foods. The results show clear differences among the four foods. In addition, we demonstrated that the measurement data could be classified using a support vector machine analysis. These results reveal the characteristics of the sensor, which measures load and vibration simultaneously.