Food Science Articles and Links

[chromedome]

This isn't the kind of "food science" we normally post here, but I found it fascinating.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/08/kitchen-science-how-mayonnaise-is-advancing-nuclear-fusion-research/

[chromedome]

"Ick factor" indeed.

https://undark.org/2024/08/21/plastic-waste-transformed-into-food-for-humans/

[chromedome]

Ah, to be a researcher in the age of microbiomes and genetic sequencing. Everybody knows there are a few Nobels to be had from it, but it'll take a few decades to see which lines of inquiry take the field into entirely novel directions.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02778-8

[Alex]

I'm melting.....

 

Quote

From pizza to panini and from quiche to quesadilla, melted cheese plays a starring role in countless culinary classics. But why do some cheeses melt into ooey-gooey deliciousness, and others simply don’t?

 

[liuzhou]

From toxic fungus to soy sauce superstar

 

Today the koji mold is a master fermenter, but it has a checkered past

[chromedome]

A look under the hood at the work going into improved plant-based eggs. They're one of the hardest things for people with allergies to replace, so there's a potentially big market for this outside of the vegan world.

 

https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/technology/2024/creating-the-perfect-plant-based-egg

[chromedome]

Not a phrase I'd expected to type this morning (or ever), but... VR flavors, anyone?

 

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/11/licking-this-lollipop-will-let-you-taste-virtual-flavors/

[Smithy]

44 minutes ago, chromedome said:

Not a phrase I'd expected to type this morning (or ever), but... VR flavors, anyone?

 

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/11/licking-this-lollipop-will-let-you-taste-virtual-flavors/

 

I've always wished we had "smell-o-rama" (or, more entertainingly, "aromarama") or its taste equivalent on this forum. Interesting that someone's getting closer to the concept. Thanks!

[chromedome]

If you draw a Venn diagram of software engineering and sourdough breadmaking, this is the place where they intersect.

https://arstechnica.com/culture/2024/11/flour-water-salt-github-the-bread-code-is-a-sourdough-baking-framework/

[Alex]

And from the day before the sourdough article, a reminder about lime-related phytophotodermatitis: 

https://arstechnica.com/health/2024/11/man-suffers-chemical-burn-that-lasted-months-after-squeezing-limes/

[liuzhou]

Researchers at the University of Bath, England, RWTH Aachen and Goethe University Frankfurt have found that sales of the last lonely banana on supermarket shelves rise by 58% if labelled as being 'sad and lonely'.

 

The story is here.

 

In other banana news some idiot from China has paid $6.2 million for a banana and eaten it. He needs a different sort of scientist - a psychiatrist. Clearly bananas.

 

That story is here. 

 

 

[liuzhou]

The translator in your mouth. There's more to saliva than meets the eye tongue. here's the lowdown on how saliva helps us differentiate flavours and even scents.

 

How saliva changes the flavor of food

[Maison Rustique]

@liuzhou, thanks for sharing that. Fascinating stuff. As my husband got older, his mouth got very dry and what he would eat changed completely. I always chalked it up to his dementia, but now wondered if some it his eating habits were more related to dry mouth.

[chromedome]

1 hour ago, Maison Rustique said:

@liuzhou, thanks for sharing that. Fascinating stuff. As my husband got older, his mouth got very dry and what he would eat changed completely. I always chalked it up to his dementia, but now wondered if some it his eating habits were more related to dry mouth.

 

My mom's been finding her mouth getting drier too, which is a common outcome for people with Parkinson's (in part because of the disorder itself, and in part because of the medications used to treat it). She always has a glass or bottle of water nearby, whether she's eating or not. It amazes her that I usually don't have a beverage of any sort with meals ("I wouldn't be able to choke anything down at all!").

I wonder to what extent dry mouth contributes to dysphagia in some people, especially in cases of advanced dementia? As some of you know, one of my cousins is losing her husband (only in his early 60s) to an aggressive form of early-onset Alzheimer's. On my last visit she told me that he's reached the dysphagia stage, and is rapidly wasting away now.

[Maison Rustique]

I sat in the dining room at the memory care many times this past year. You'd be amazed how many of the patients had a hard time eating--lots of choking at every meal. Some did have Parkinson's and I am pretty sure meds used for that are sometimes used for other dementia types, too. When they got to a certain stage, they would put them on liquid diets.

[Tropicalsenior]

I don't suffer from dry mouth but I do eat too fast. It goes back to my days of working in restaurants when you always seem to be eating on the Fly. Lately, Foods just don't seem to taste as good. Well, last night I decided to try something different. I had a small bag of Doritos and I ate them very slowly and chewed them thoroughly. I was amazed. They actually tasted like the Doritos I remembered. So there definitely is something to letting the saliva do its job.

Edited December 9, 2024 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[chromedome]

Might be of interest to some, here. Researchers took 500 samples from 28 restaurants, evaluating the apparent cleanliness of various surfaces (and kitchen staffs' hands) vs actual cleanliness when subjected to laboratory testing. Unsurprisingly, they concluded that old-school visual restaurant inspections were wildly inaccurate relative to actual testing. This goes both ways, as some visual scores were actually worse than the lab-tested scores.

Nothing earth-shaking (and few jurisdictions are going to put any serious money into restaurant inspections), but there are a few interesting nuggets if anyone wants to dig through the details.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-86017-8#Sec11

[chromedome]

On a completely different note, here's a CT scan of a croissant baking from frozen. Kinda cool.

 

 

[Alex]

Cacio e pepe meets science 

 

Quote

Italian scientists have drawn from thermodynamic principles to prevent a famous pasta from turning into a gooey mess.

 

[chromedome]

The good news: researchers have developed a method for perfect soft-boiled eggs. The bad news: you spend a half-hour fussing over them.

 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44172-024-00334-w

[AlaMoi]

32 minutes for a soft boiled egg . . . I'll pass - and stick with 4:45 out of the fridge.

[chromedome]

This is anecdotal, so it's definitely not "science" as such, but this still seemed the best place for it to my eye. It's comments from the spouses of those on GLP-1 agonists (semaglutide, etc), on the changes they've seen in their partners while on the medication. It paints a mixed picture, in many ways. I'll note that one of my stepdaughters had bariatric surgery a year ago, and has experienced some of these things as well, despite having gone the route of surgery rather than medication. Basically the loss of food as a social/comfort thing, which is not negligible.

https://www.elle.com/beauty/health-fitness/a63460440/ozempic-side-effects-spouses-interview/

 

That said, the evidence of broad health benefits for these meds is mounting rapidly, and should never be overlooked in any discussion of the pros and cons.

[chromedome]

I'll call this one "food science," on the grounds that it's probably not worth creating a new thread for "food-related medical stories." A man in Florida needed years to finally be diagnosed with a brucellosis infection around his defibrillator implant, and it was eventually traced to eating pork from a feral hog.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/03/florida-man-eats-feral-pig-meat-contracts-rare-biothreat-bacteria/

[chromedome]

I've previously shared articles about coffee research from a specific team of scientists. This time, they've turned their attention to improving pour-over coffee (link to the underlying study in the text, for those who want to geek out).

 

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/apr/08/secret-to-stronger-pour-over-coffee-with-no-extra-beans-unlocked-by-scientists

[Smithy]

4 hours ago, chromedome said:

I've previously shared articles about coffee research from a specific team of scientists. This time, they've turned their attention to improving pour-over coffee (link to the underlying study in the text, for those who want to geek out).

 

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/apr/08/secret-to-stronger-pour-over-coffee-with-no-extra-beans-unlocked-by-scientists

 

This caught my eye at the end:

Quote

"Of course, there is a cheat open to those who prefer cafetiere coffee,” he said. “That is, put in a spoon and give the grounds a stir, but perhaps a cleverly chosen pour could save dirtying cutlery.”

 

My procedure, in my current living situation with a French press, is to pour enough water into the press to wet all the grounds, give it all a stir to make sure the grounds are wetted (sound familiar?) then pour the rest of the water over the spoon so it's rinsed. Voila, no dirty cutlery. 🙂

 

I suppose that wouldn't work in a commercial kitchen.