Micro-computed tomography shows silent bubbles in squeaky mozzarella
: Nurkkala Elina, Hannula Markus, Carlson Craig S., Hopia Anu, Hyttinen Jari, Postema Michiel
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
: 2023
: Current directions in biomedical engineering
: Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering
: 9
: 1
: 5
: 8
: 2364-5504
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2023-1002
: https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2023-1002
: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/181525991
The sound of food is of influence on how its flavour is perceived. Although rarely studied in psychoacoustics, cheese may have a resonating internal structure in the audible spectrum. It has been speculated that this structure or small bubbles that are formed as a result of fermentation are responsible for creating audible acoustic responses. The purpose of this study was to design a mechanical methodology to create audible acoustics from cheese samples and to quantify bubble presence in a sample. One hundred and two samples of mozzarella cheese with 1.5±0.4-cm3 volumes were subjected to shear from a wetted steel blade, whilst orthogonal force, blade acceleration, and acoustic response were continuously monitored. In addition, micro-computed tomography was performed. It was found that under our measurement conditions, mozzarella was forced to squeak in 10% of the experiments, at fundamental squeak frequencies up to 2 kHz, which indicates that the acoustics come from a resonating porous structure, rather than from resonating bubbles. The micro-computed tomography showed a bubble density of 51 cm−3 . This low bubble density may account for the absence of a high-frequency component in the spectra analysed. Our results confirm the presence of small bubbles in squeaky mozzarella, but these generate frequencies much higher than those recorded.