Introduction
The development of care food, which is processed to be soft and easy to eat, is steadily progressing to the point that the shape, colour and taste are nearly indistinguishable from ordinary food, except that the texture is softened to enable crushing using just the gums and tongue. These commercially available products are a great boon to the elderly and individuals with internal mouth injuries who may have inadequate strength for chewing and drinking, and are helping these disadvantaged groups to better enjoy the pleasures of tasting and eating. Meanwhile, according to the Health Promotion Law in Japan, the Japan Consumer Affairs Agency is authorized to conduct reviews of the suitability of “foods for people with dysphagia” as regulated special purpose foods, and based on these reviews, permit the display of such foods.
Here, we conducted measurements of commercially available care food based on the test methods specified for reviewing the suitability of foods for people with dysphagia. We then classified the food according to the specific standard based on the obtained hardness, adhesiveness, and cohesiveness data.
Testing Equipment and Specimens
The instrument used for this evaluation was the Shimadzu EZ Test Texture Analyzer, with a 5N test force measurement load cell. The samples used consisted of 3 commercially available care food products (sample names: A – C).Test Conditions
An overview of the measurement setup is shown in Fig. 1. The sample diameter was 40 mm, and the sample was loaded to a height of 15 mm in the 20 mm high sample container. Using a plastic plunger 20 mm in diameter and 8 mm in height, compression testing was conducted twice at a speed of 10 mm/sec with a clearance of 5 mm. The test was conducted using a sample temperature of 20 °C.Test Results
The results obtained from testing of 3 types of food products are shown in the force – time graphs of Fig. 2 – Fig. 4.
The results obtained from the series of measurements are shown in Table 1.
The measured values for hardness, adhesiveness and cohes ivenes s that are wi thin the range of the permissible standard are indicated with a □ that surrounds the standards in the Judgment field. Food A does not satisfy the hardness standards Ⅰ andⅡ, so the permissible standard was designated as Ⅲ. In the case of foods B and C, item Ⅰ is not satisfied, so the permissible standard would be presumed to be Ⅱ.
However, the permissible standard becomes Ⅲ in the final evaluation, because food B and food C contain non-homogeneous ingredients. Thus, by defining the numerical value and comparing it with the judgment standards, the judgment can be made as to which permissible standard it corresponds.
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