Flavor-Enhancing Electric Chopsticks May Make Food Better and Tastier
Lusciously sweet, intensely savory, piercingly sour, a hint of bitterness, and a dash of salt. These five flavors that we are able to perceive combine together in different proportions to make melodiously delicious foods.
Our taste buds help us enjoy a wide range of delicacies, spices and ingredients. And thanks to this latest Japanese invention, enjoying these tasty dishes may soon be a little healthier and more guilt-free.
Taste-enhancing chopsticks
The Guardian reports that Homei Miyashita, a professor at Meiji University, in conjunction with Kirin, a food manufacturer, has invented the first ever electric chopsticks.
How do they work? The chopsticks attach to a mini computer on the user’s wristband. As the chopstick user enjoys the food, the chopsticks transmit an electrical current containing sodium ions that enhance the taste of the food.
This current can make the food taste saltier, without needing to add additional salt.
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This isn’t the first time that this inventor has delved into using tech to engage the senses. He is known for creating a lickable TV screen that can imitate various food flavors.
Salty taste for low-salt diets
The electric current in these new electric chopsticks is weak enough to be harmless for users, but the slight current has been shown to be effective at improving taste. According to Science Focus, clinical trials revealed that low sodium food became “rich and flavorful” with the saltiness enhanced up to 1.5 times, when using the chopsticks.
This is good news for Japan, in particular. Its population, who’s cuisine includes high sodium dishes like miso and soy sauce, consumes on average nearly twice the amount of sodium recommended by the World Health Organization on a daily basis, reports the Guardian.
According to the WHO, high sodium diets can lead to heart disease and other ailments. “To prevent these diseases,” explains Ai Sato, a researcher at Kirin, “we need to reduce the amount of salt we take. If we try to avoid taking less salt in a conventional way, we would need to endure the pain of cutting our favorite food from our diet, or endure eating bland food.”
The salt-enhancing chopsticks can help users “have their cake and eat it too,” by providing a healthy route for experiencing mouthwateringly salty tastes.
The product currently exists as a prototype and Kirin hopes to bring it to the larger market next year.
