Too Sticky to Eat? - Evidence-based approaches for consistency-modified diets: solutions from food physics, culinary and clinic
Abstract
While dysphagia (oropharyngeal dysphagia, OD) is primarily studied from a medical point of view, many issues remain unclear in the interplay between food properties, culinary processes and oral processing. In particular, the interplay between physical variables such as oral surface adhesion ("stickiness") , internal structural cohesion ("binding strength"), fracture behavior, and oral motor behavior as a function of gender and age are poorly understood. As a result, many approaches to improving the quality of life of people suffering from OD through food texture modifications are often subjective and not based on scientific principles. This increases the risk of unsafe and inefficient food intake, leading to medical and economic consequences such as increased pneumonia rates, malnutrition, and prolonged hospital stays. In addition, this has a significant impact on the quality of life for affected patients. The main objective of the project is to identify essential physical aspects that control surface adhesion, structural cohesion and fracture behavior in food products. Based on these parameters, applicable guidelines for targeted product creation in consistency-modified food forms will be generated. These guidelines will be tested on healthy individuals based on model foods and kitchen-engineered prototypes in order to obtain systematic feedback for further investigations and applications in patients with dysphagia.
keywords Food Physics Dysphagia Texture Stroke Oral Processing Behaviour
Publikationen
Project staff
Philipp Lawrence Fuhrmann
Dr. Philipp Lawrence Fuhrmann
philipp.fuhrmann@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-75466, 152075466
Project Leader
01.03.2023 - 28.02.2026
BOKU partners
External partners
Research Centre on Vascular Ageing and Stroke VASCage
Simon Sollereder
partner
FH Joanneum - University of Applied Sciences
Wolfgang Staubmann
partner
Gersta GmbH
Gerhart Stadlbauer
partner