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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Food oral processing and interindividual variability in human. Links between physiological parameters, release of sensory stimuli and perception of food.

subject

description

International audience; In human food oral processing is the first step in the digestive process. It prepares the food to be swallowed and then to undergo the process of digestion. During chewing, the food is comminuted by the combined action of chewing and saliva to form a bolus. The particle size of the bolus is reduced thanks to the action of the tongue and the teeth and the saliva is continuously produced by the salivary glands for humidifying and impregnating the food. Saliva impregnates and lubricates the bowl and also allows cohesion of the particles to prepare the step of swallowing. During food oral processing, the compounds responsible for food flavour and taste are released during this complex process leading to the perception of the food sensory properties and contributing significantly to the acceptability of the product by the consumer. Understanding this process of food breakdown and bolus formation appears thus as a way to revisit food functional properties. However, this process is extremely complex and, as such, its description necessitates to combine many quantities coming from different disciplines i.e. physics, chemistry, physiology, psychology, behavioural science, food science. In this talk, we propose to review through chosen examples the major mechanical, physico-chemical and biochemical phenomena that held in the mouth during chewing of food and their impact on the sensory properties of food. The large interindividual variability observed on these phenomena among the population will be particularly emphasized.