Spice lovers, listen up! 🌶️ Have you ever wondered exactly how fiery your curry or sambal really is? Well, scientists on the Chinese mainland have whipped up a gel-based 'chili-meter' – an artificial tongue that can judge spiciness as accurately as we can (without us tearing up!).
This year, researchers at East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) created a soft, flexible gel by mixing milk powder, acrylic acid and choline chloride. Why milk? It's all about capsaicin – the compound in chilies that makes you feel the burn. Milk proteins bind to capsaicin, calming the heat, and the same trick helps the gel 'taste' spice.
Here's how it works: when capsaicin latches onto the gel's proteins, it swells up and blocks tiny ion currents inside. The gel then gives an electric signal drop, which translates directly into a spiciness score – kind of like a thermometer for heat 🔥.
To test it, the team 'sampled' eight chili varieties, building a scale from 0 (mild) to 70 (extreme). The readings matched taste-test pros, proving the artificial tongue is reliable. Imagine getting instant, precise feedback on your homemade sambal or that new hot sauce you're experimenting with!
Beyond food factories and quality control, this tech could power portable taste monitors or even give humanoid robots a sense of spice. In the future, you might carry a pocket-sized chili-meter or cheer on a robot in a spicy-food challenge 🤖.
Whether you're a foodie, a home cook or just love hot sauce, this innovative tool is set to shake up how we measure heat. Stay tuned for more spicy science! 🌶️✨
Reference(s):
Chinese scientists develop artificial tongue to measure spiciness
cgtn.com
