Evaluation of "safe" food that caters to the different eating functions of the aged

本研究考察了混合溶胶-凝胶样品作为“安全”食品的示范模型，以满足老年人的需求，他们的饮食功能正在下降。以山药粉末为原料，制备了五种不同硬度的溶胶样品。蒸熟的山药被制成立方体来制作凝胶样品。等量的溶胶和凝胶样品混合在一起，形成五种不同类型的溶胶-凝胶样品。除了具有色拉油样硬度的样品外，所有溶胶-凝胶样品的硬度和粘附性都低于单独使用凝胶或溶胶样品，但黏结性高于单独使用凝胶或溶胶样品。在感官分析中，含有与蛋黄酱和磨碎的日本山药硬度相当的溶胶-凝胶样品被评价为“易于吞咽”。在同一项研究中，两个不同年龄组（年轻人和老年人）参与了面粉淀粉琼脂凝胶样品与三种不同硬度的溶胶样品混合的感官分析。两组之间的评估结果显示出略有不同的趋势。通过视频荧光观察吞咽机理发现，使用硬度与色拉油相当的溶胶（样品中最软、黏结性最低）的样品的凝胶含量在吞咽后暂时滞留在小囊中，导致样品中的溶胶含量提前进入咽凝胶。然而，对于具有蛋黄酱样硬度的溶胶-凝胶混合物，吞咽后咽内未观察到残留。

The present study examined mixed sol-gel samples as exemplary models of "safe" food tailored to meet the needs of the aged whose eating functions are declining. Powdered yam was used to prepare sol samples with five different levels of hardness. Steamed Chinese yam was formed into cubes to create the gel samples. Equal parts of the sol and the gel samples were mixed together to create five different types of sol-gel samples. With the exception of the sample with salad oil-like hardness, all sol-gel samples exhibited lower values in both firmness and adhesiveness, but higher values in cohesiveness, compared with those of gel or sol samples alone. In a sensory analysis, the sol-gel samples containing sols equivalent in hardness to mayonnaise and grated Japanese yam were evaluated as "easy to swallow."In the same study, two different age groups (the young and the aged) took part in sensory analysis of flour starch agar-gel samples mixed with sol samples with three different levels of hardness. Slightly different trends were disclosed in the outcome of the evaluation between the two groups.Observation of the swallowing mechanism under videomanofluorography revealed that, the gel content of the sample using sol with a firmness equivalent to that of salad oil---the softest and least cohesive of the samples---temporarily remained in the vallecula after the swallowing, causing the sol content of the sample to flow into the pharynx in advance to the gel. However, for the sol-gel mixture with a mayonnaise-like firmness, no residue was observed in the pharynx after the swallowing.