Segmented Food Product Reducing Aroma Compound Concentration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods fail to reduce the concentration of aroma compounds in food products without compromising the taste and flavor, as aroma compounds are perceived differently than tastants, making it challenging to decrease their content without affecting consumer perception.
Innovation Solution
Distributing aroma compounds across two sections with the same visual appearance and sensory properties but different concentrations, where the first section has a normal concentration and the second section has a lower concentration, allowing consumers to perceive the product as homogeneous in taste and aroma.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If the concentration of aroma compounds is decreased in food products, then raw material and energy requirements are reduced, but the taste and flavor perception is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The food product is divided into two distinct sections with different aroma compound concentrations. The first section contains a normal concentration of aroma compounds to provide satisfactory taste and flavor perception, while the second section contains a reduced concentration to lower raw material and energy requirements. This segmentation allows the product to meet both conflicting requirements by spatially separating the high-aroma and low-aroma regions.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the food product are assigned different aroma compound concentrations based on local requirements. The first section (consumed first) maintains normal aroma concentration to ensure good initial taste perception, while the second section (consumed later) uses reduced aroma concentration to minimize resource usage. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction between overall reduction and local quality maintenance.
2Reliability
If uniform concentration of aroma compounds is maintained throughout the product, then consistent taste and flavor are achieved, but raw material and energy consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The product is segmented into two sections with different aroma concentrations. The first section provides normal aroma levels for consistent initial taste, while the second section uses reduced aroma levels. This segmentation enables overall reduction of aroma compounds while maintaining acceptable taste consistency in the consuming experience.
Solution Approach 2:
The aroma concentration dynamically changes across the product sections and during consumption. The first section delivers normal aroma concentration for consistent perception, while the second section transitions to lower concentration. This dynamic approach allows reduction of total aroma content while maintaining perceived consistency during the consumption sequence.
3Quantity of substance
If sections with different aroma concentrations are created, then aroma compound content is reduced, but the product heterogeneity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The product exhibits local quality variations with different aroma concentrations in different sections. The first section has normal aroma concentration while the second section has reduced concentration. This local differentiation achieves overall reduction of aroma compounds while maintaining acceptable product composition stability through controlled spatial distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
Despite having different aroma concentrations, the two sections are designed to maintain overall product homogeneity in terms of visual appearance, texture, and other sensory properties. Only the aroma compound concentration differs between sections, allowing the product to appear homogeneous to consumers while actually containing reduced total aroma content through the lower-concentration second section.
Data Source
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AI summary
The aim of the present invention is to reduce the concentration of aroma compounds in food products, without having negative taste attributes. The present invention provides such food products containing two sections, wherein the two sections are visually the same, and wherein the two sections contain aroma compounds at different concentrations in the two sections.