Yes Consultancy & Worldwide Fruit

New ultrasonic research is music to your mouth

Research released in August 2006 received wide media coverage for the Food Chain CIC and the University fo Leeds.  Aired live on Sky News morning News on August 30th the story was also covered by Radio Leeds during the Leeds Food & Drink Festival and by the Daily Mail the next day.  Other coverage included the London Evening Standard and the Trade Press.  Several photos of the Sky News coverage can be viewed on this site.

We already know that we judge food’s satisfaction by its taste, aroma and texture but scientists at the University of Leeds have groundbreaking new research that identifies a hitherto unexplored dimension – ultrasound.

Malcolm Povey , Professor of Food Physics at the University of Leeds, is a world expert in ultrasound and conducted the trial with his colleagues at the Yorkshire Forward funded Food Centre of Industrial Collaboration (CIC).

Through research commissioned by Worldwide Fruit, Professor Povey examined the crispy nature of various inherently crunchy foods – Jazz apples, premium thick-cut crisps and rich tea biscuits.

The taste panel findings revealed that the subjects recorded the apples as providing the most ‘enjoyment of biting’, achieving a top score of 7.8 on a scale of 0 to 10.

Interestingly, laboratory research using a texture analyser machine that ‘bites’ into food and records the sound in a matter of milliseconds showed that the apples produced far more ultrasound than the crisps or biscuits, measuring significantly higher amplitude (loudness).

Professor Povey said, “When you munch a Jazz apple you create pulses of sound containing large amounts of ultrasound which our brains interpret differently from ordinary sounds such as speech. The pulses are so intense that if they were sustained as a tone, they would destroy our hearing.”

“It appears that ordinary hearing is short-circuited somehow and the greater the number of pulses of sound, the crisper we think the food is. Ultrasound is sound that is beyond the range of normal human hearing but it helps shape the noise into pulses that sound quite different.

“Our group of subjects were culturally diverse but all were able to identify crispness similarly. So perhaps there is a genetic disposition to the appreciation of crispness which has evolved as a sign of freshness in food.”

Dr Graham Clayton , Food Chain CIC Commercial Director, said “Thanks to our world-renowned laboratories that house bespoke research equipment worth over £10 million, combined with Professor Povey’s insightfulness and creativity, we are in a unique position to undertake new research into this fascinating field that is worthy of significant funding.”

Gary Harrison, Commercial Manager for Worldwide Fruit said, “Jazz is a new, very crispy apple and its name was suggested by our Spalding based technical director Dr Drew Reynolds.  What we didn’t realise is that the sound that a Jazz apple creates in your head when eaten is quite unique, so the name is highly appropriate.  You could say that it’s music to your mouth!"  (See also www.worldwidefruit.co.uk & www.jazzapples.co.uk)