What food looks like can affect its taste as much as the ingredients that go into it, but all five human senses actually play a role in the way we perceive and enjoy what we eat. Chocolate is a great example of this, as snapping and cracking is difficult to make perfect for baking, but it is a big part of its appeal. This led researchers from the University of Amsterdam to experiment with 3D printing of chocolate with unique structures that highlight the characteristics we already associate with high-quality chocolates, hoping to find ways to change how materials break and improve how people physically engage with matter. . of all kinds.
As our ability to produce and manipulate materials at the microscopic level has improved, this has opened up a world of research around something called metamaterials. People have long since learned how to mix different materials to produce new ones with very specific properties; this is the basis of the science of metallurgy, for example. But metamaterials seek to do the same by changing the structure of a material to produce improved properties or characteristics. One of the most interesting areas of metamaterial research is with camera lenses, which look completely flat to the human eye, but are actually covered with microscopic structures that bend light as effectively as curved lenses, further enhancing smartphone photography while get rid of camera bumps one day.
Camera lenses and blocks don’t seem to have much in common, but metamaterials can be just as useful for chocolate lovers as they are for photographers. There are several factors that separate high-quality chocolate from the cheap stuff used to make giant bunnies that you probably liked last weekend. Good things have a shiny glossy finish and tend to crack when bitten, with a sharp click, instead of just falling apart in the mouth. This unique texture comes from tempering, a time-consuming but important process in which chocolate is repeatedly melted and cooled to certain temperatures to reach a certain phase (there are six in total and phase five is ideal), where the desired crystal structure is formed.
Researchers at the University of Amsterdam have found that the metamaterials approach can be used to further improve the texture and bite experience of high-quality chocolate. This happens by creating even more clicks and breaks through a structure that is more complex than that created by simply pouring melted chocolate into molds. However, the idea did not replace the tempering process, which actually created some unique challenges when researchers turned to 3D printers to produce their chocolate treats.
The melted chocolate, which has been tempered to reach the stage where Phase V crystals form, is loaded into syringes to be held at 90 degrees Fahrenheit while the printer builds the structures layer by layer. But maintaining this temperature proved to be a challenge that required constant recalibration to account for the thickening of the chocolate over time. Using 3D printers with a plastic extruder is already meticulous enough, but the trade in tempered chocolate sounds like a real nightmare.
The results were shared in a recently published paper, Edible Mechanical Metamaterials with a Designed Fracture to Control Oral Sensation, in Soft Matter magazine. They confirmed what the researchers speculated: the perceived quality and enjoyment of eating chocolate can be improved by increasing the number of cracks that appear when biting a piece through S-shaped structures of increasing complexity. The researchers also found that the experience could be improved by creating chocolate with anisotropic structures that alter the resistance felt during the bite through shapes and patterns that cut and break with force applied in certain directions.
Will we soon see companies like Lindt or Cadbury launch treats inspired by metamaterials? Probably not, but the study has some other interesting applications when it comes to food. Using such production processes, the texture of artificial meat can be improved to feel more like a bite from the real thing, or changed into something completely different for those who are excluded from the traditional texture of meat. It can also be used to prepare foods that still taste good (or at least mislead the brain that they are), but are easier to eat than those that have problems with chewing or swallowing.
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