A gel-based synthetic tongue might let the steam off human chilli tasters, as it can determine the level of spice, from the mild bell pepper to peppers like the Carolina Reaper, which taste like pain and regret.
Chillies have been the stars of “hot” trends, from the One Chip Challenge to the talk show “Hot Ones”. “Fire Noodle Challenge” introduced us to the super-spicy Buldak noodles, along with burning lips, watering eyes, and a troubled bowel movement.
The human tongue has so far been the only judge of spice levels. Scoville isolated capsaicin, the active component of chillies that gives them heat, from various chillies and diluted it with sugar water until the tasting panel couldn’t detect any heat. The number of dilutions marked the spice level, known as the Scoville Heat Unit. New methods use High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).
This synthetic tongue isn’t the first artificial tongue; however, it is the first to demonstrate its ability to estimate spice level. Its gel base is prepared from a blend of milk powder, acrylic acid, and choline chloride. When a current is applied, the hydrogen and chloride ions move across the setup as they conduct electricity. The tongue is placed between two copper plates and is connected to a contraption that measures conductivity.
The team took advantage of milk proteins’ ability to neutralize spices. Milk “proteins that affect our perception of spiciness” relieve the burn of a spicy dish, explains Carolyn Ross, a food scientist at Washington State University in Pullman. Capsicin— the active component of chillies, forms bulky complexes with milk powder, which disrupts the ion flow, causing the conductivity to drop. By measuring the change in current, the chillies are rated on a range of 0 to 70, from plain to dangerously hot. The researchers tested eight chilli-based products, from chilli powder to Tabasco sauce. They had trained a human tester panel to cross-check the credibility of the synthetic tongue’s spice-o-meter abilities. The panel’s ratings reflected the measurements from the synthetic tongue.
Co-author Jing Hu, a chemical engineer at the East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai, plans to bring this bulky desktop device down to the size that fits in a pocket. Eh wants more trained and untrained testers to validate the readings.
And folks, that is how the human chilli testers got relieved from tasting peppers that send the body into Code Red. However, the thrill is what makes tasting chillis fun; this device can’t take that thrill away.
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