Development of Food Texture Sensor Using Two Magnetic Sensing Elements

An effective evaluation method of food texture is required for food development. A conventional evaluation method is sensory test-based evaluation. Although the sensory test directly evaluates food texture, it requires many subjects and high cost. Another evaluation method is a use of food texture instruments. The instruments quantify food texture. However, its sensor has the simple function which measures load. Its evaluation performance is not enough for food texture evaluation. In this paper, we propose a food texture sensor. The sensor is based on a human tooth, and has the structure which is composed of a contactor, an elastomer membrane and a base. Two kinds of sensing elements detect displacement of the contactor. The sensing elements work as fast and slow adaptive receptors. In this paper, first the structure and function of human tooth are described. Second, the structure of the sensor is illustrated, and the principle is explained. Finally, a fabricated prototype is demonstrated. In addition, the effectiveness of the sensor is confirmed through experiments using the prototype and foods.