Tasty Bites From The Web!
A Machine Which Lets You Sample Flavours

If only you could sample a particular flavour of a pizza by clicking on a button before making an order online? Well the way things seem to be moving, it may just be possible!

Trisenx of Savannah has come up with one such machine that claims to offer users a tasty bite. Data embedded on web pages is sent to a computer peripheral which works like an inkjet printer with a cartridge that has not ink but base flavours that get added to edible wafers dispensed from the machine. This system however cannot provide meaty flavours. Available on the list are those of chocolate, cinnamon rolls, buttered popcorn and strawberries.

How appealing can they be is the key question. According to Gary Beauchamp, director of Monell Chemical Senses Center, the flavours that can be added to the wafers could possibly succeed.

Ellwood Ivey, chairman and director of Trisenx has been involved with the product since 1996.The initial attempt at giving people samples by tasting flavours on pieces of paper was far from convincing. People found the actual process of having food samples in the mouth more effective.

The present product however dishes out flavours which is actually more tricking to the tongue. As Firestein, a professor of biology at Columbia university says flavour is associated with varied factors like temperature, mouth feel and smell.

Smell is the one sensation to be won over if the product has to succeed. For many people perceive taste as an extension of smell. Smell arises from molecules of air carrying volatile compounds that the user sniffs. So also smell comes when food is being chewed. This combination has to be effectively used if the system is to sell. The flavour samples on the web will have to come after the synthesised scent experiences so that the taste business logically follows the scent business.

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