Japanese professor invented chopsticks to increase the salty taste of food

Chopsticks create a salty taste for Japanese researchers to develop – Photo: REUTERS

According to Reuters news agency, professor Homei Miyashita of Meiji University (Japan) and beverage maker Kirin have created this taste-enhancing wand using electrical stimulation and a wrist-worn device. .

This device uses a gentle electric current to transfer sodium ions from the food through the chopsticks to the mouth, helping to create the sensation of salty taste.

Mr. Miyashita said this special type of chopsticks can increase the salinity of food by one and a half times.

Besides chopsticks that give off the salty taste, Mr. Miyashita and his lab have explored the various ways technology can stimulate human sensory experience.

Mr. Miyashita has developed a device like a TV screen that simulates tastes. Using this device, the user can taste different flavors of food.

Salty chopsticks are considered a useful solution to protect the health of Japanese people in the future.

The country has a traditional diet that tends to be salty. The average Japanese adult consumes about 10g of salt per day, twice as much as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Excess salt can increase the risk of high blood pressure, stroke and many other diseases.

“If we try to reduce salt in the usual way, we will have to be forced to cut our favorite foods from our diet, or have to eat bland foods,” said researcher Ai Sato of Kirin said.

So both Mr. Miyashita and Kirin are perfecting chopsticks that create flavors and hope to be able to commercialize them early next year.