Here’s something to chew over. An artificial mouth has been developed that can reproduce the mush created by humans munching on an apple. It could form part of a robotic taste-tester designed to improve food quality and safety.
Many of the flavours we taste are generated by the release of volatile compounds from food, which pass around the back of the mouth and up into the nose. The release of these compounds from hard foodstuffs such as apples varies according to whether the apple is crushed, sliced, or liquidised. So if a robotic system is going to “experience” the same…
