February 21/Nottingham, U.K./PSFK -- Food scientists from the University of Nottingham have been researching how salt is released from chips into the mouth and have identified that the “salt burst” occurs 20 seconds after chewing has started. With this knowledge, their goal is to reduce the sodium content of chips by developing technologies that accelerate the salt delivery time. This new approach could mean healthier chips (and other snack foods) that have less salt but taste the same.
Dr. Ian Fisk, a lecturer in the Division of Food Sciences, and Masters Project student Xing Tian, used a panel of 10 food tasters to help measure salt release. They were instructed to chew chips a specific number of times and keep them in their mouths for one minute before swallowing. Tongue swabs were taken and analyzed to monitor the levels of salt.