More and more people have a kitchen robot at home. The truth is that they make life a lot easier. But nothing like a good cook tasting the dish in different stages of cooking. Now, what if that could also be done by the robot? Or, more complex still, what if you could do it by mimicking the chewing human? That is precisely what a group of scientists from the University of Cambridgein collaboration with the home appliance brand Beko.
And it’s actually not the same taste a food just put it in the mouth after chewing it a little. As we perform this gesture, we release more saliva and digestive enzymes that change those flavor signals that then reach our brain. In addition, the food itself releases its components in a different way. It would be wonderful if a food processor could do something similar. Therefore, these scientists have decided to add that extra step in the process to stop savor employed by one of his robots.
It should be noted that what they describe in a recently published study in Frontiers in Robotics and AI it is still very preliminary. At the moment the kitchen robot alone measure salt levels, leaving aside other substances that can alter the taste. But, even so, their results have been very promising, so they hope to be able to do them again with other ingredients, such as sugar or oil.
The food processor that chews and savors
We all have in mind the typical image of our grandmothers tasting the food with his wooden spoon. An aside here. Don’t put the spoon back in the food after you taste something in it. And if possible use utensils of other materials like silicone, because wood accumulates many more microorganisms.
Returning to the image of our grandmothers, it is true that trying what we cook is important. In fact, there are already kitchen robots capable of doing it. They do not taste as such, but they do measure the levels of different ingredients closely linked to the flavor. However, humans can taste and chew what we taste and that is something that a food processor cannot do.
Therefore, these scientists decided to carry out a proof of concept, consisting of placing a conductance probe on a robotic arm, used as a salinity sensor. Samples of a plate of scrambled eggs with tomato and more or less salt were passed through it. The samples were passed both whole and blended, so that its components are released as in chewing. In this way, he made a flavor map in different phases, ready to be evaluated by human tasters.
A version 2.0
The mere fact that they were able measure salinity imitating different phases of chewing is a great advance. However, they still have many steps to take.
The goal is for the food processor to be able to use these flavor maps to different ingredients and let the user adjust it to your own tastes. For example, a person may want more or less salty foods, both based on her preferences and health. The same for spicy, sugar or any ingredient that provides a lot of flavor. Not all of us have the same tastes, so it is our food processor that must adapt to us.
Therefore, the next step of these scientists will be precisely that. Try it with other ingredients and, in addition, program it so that the users themselves can adjust it to your tastes. If they succeed, we will be facing the most similar kitchen robot to a real chef. Although they will never look like our grandmothers, with or without a wooden spoon.