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Electric chopsticks that tickle your taste buds
Japanese researchers have found a way to lower salt intake without ruining food
These chopsticks use a gentle electric current to make food taste saltier, in an effort by Japanese researchers to reduce the sodium levels in a national diet that relies heavily on salty ingredients like soy sauce and miso.
They look like a pair of typical chopsticks, just with a set of wires sticking out that connect to a small wrist computer. The utensils work by passing a weak electric current through one of the sticks, which draws out sodium ions from the food (the chemical component that gives salt its savoury taste). The wrist computer modulates the current to create a unique waveform, which the researchers say is so gentle that it poses no danger to the diner.
“IF WE TRY TO AVOID SALT IN A CONVENTIONAL WAY, WE WOULD NEED TO ENDURE THE PAIN OF CUTTING OUR FAVOURITE FOODS FROM OUR DIET, OR ENDURE EATING BLAND FOOD”
While this technology has potential across the world, it is especially useful in Japan. The researchers – a collaboration between a lab led by Homei Miyashita from Meiji University of Tokyo and food and drink manufacturer Kirin Holdings – highlighted that the daily salt intake of Japanese adults is 10.9g for men and 9.3g for women. That is much higher than the World Health Organization’s recommended salt intake standards of less than 5g per day. “To prevent diseases, we need to reduce the amount of salt we take,” says Kirin Holdings researcher Ai Sato. “If we try to avoid salt in a conventional way, we would need to endure the pain of cutting our favourite foods from our diet, or endure eating bland food.”
In clinical tests, people who follow a low-sodium diet confirmed that the device enhanced salty tastes of low-sodium food by about 1.5 times. They also described reduced-salt soup as being rich and flavourful with the chopsticks, and found they could achieve similar levels of satisfaction with much lower amounts of salt in most meals tested.
This isn’t the first time that Miyashita has put his mind to the world of taste. He is possibly best known for his creation of a lickable TV screen that is able to imitate various flavours.
The researchers are hoping to refine the product and plan on making it available to consumers in the next year. Kirin Holdings is also looking to design further products that can offer health benefits and taste combinations, mostly around the world of low-sodium dietary requirements.
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