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How Do Food Tasters Work?

Food will never be the same again

By Gabriel Gache, Science News Editor

10th of January 2008, 12:21 GMT

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Hm... I can almost taste it. Wait let me get my food analyzer

Oh... here's a little gadget that will surely get some people fired. You know how sometimes you hear a tune on the radio, but you never seem to get its name? Luckily, they have invented the music analyzer that records the melody and automatically searches its name on the Internet. Well, it seems you can do the same with foods and beverages. No more Coca-Cola instead of Pepsi light, and funny Italian voices at the pub!

For music analyzers, the process of signature identification is relatively easy, all it takes is to compare two electrical signals. But what about food analyzers? It turns out that

such devices are rather complex, as converting all the different chemical substances that are contained in food is not as simple as it may sound. The newly patented device uses a light spectroscopy technique, in order to make a quantitative evaluation of the chemical substances contained inside food.

The basic design of the device, which is patented by the electronics company Philips, consists in absorbing part of the vapors given off by the food or beverage and shining it with a powerful source of light. The vapors would filter part of the light emitted by the light source, and reveal the light spectrum of the different chemicals contained. Each chemical substance absorbs light in a specific optical wavelength, thus different colors would reveal different substances.

Then, the light filtered through the vapors would be received by a sensor, and turned into an electrical signal, which would be relatively easy to process, in order to reveal the chemical composition of a particular type of food.

Such devices had previously been available for large food companies, which require regular food sampling during the production. However, Philips promises to deliver a device for the masses, which would be affordable and small enough to carry around, as they have succeeded in fitting all the components of the device in a single chip. All we have to do is wait until it will be available on the market, then start annoying restaurant waiters with our remarks about their crappy food.

TAGS:

light spectroscopy | electrical signals | food | Philips

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