Never liked the taste of water?
Learn why and how Aqvita can change this for you
Abstract
Electronic tongues (e-tongues) or analytical taste sensors are one of the most exciting and precise tools to objectively analyze taste profiles of foods, beverages, and now, mineralized and tap waters.
Aqvita partnered with an academic institution to test the e-tongue technology to discriminate among popular premium mineral water brands and mineralized water recipes created by Aqvita.
Aqvita employs the e-tongue to measure the flavor compounds of functional waters and recreate existing, popular bottled mineral water flavors.
Aqvita uses e-tongue technology to custom design water infused with healthful minerals which can be made available on tap for a specific consumer.
Third parties trade marks or water brands mentionned in this article are solely provided as examples and are in no way affiliated with Aqvita
Electronic Tongue Technology for Food and Water Flavor Testing
How does Aqvita design great tasting water? To evaluate quality, often products in the food and water industries rely on quantitative and qualitative sensory tests from various technologies and subjective human sensory panels. Methods have been developed to evaluate changes in taste, color, turbidity (appearance of “cloudiness” in a liquid sample), and aroma. However, sensory evaluations are time consuming, expensive, and subject to variation according to differing human perceptions, cultures, ages, and sex. There are even recorded errors and differences among trained “tasting” specialists.
For example, a famous water sommelier named Mr. Martin Riese, the creator of water menus for restaurants across the globe, describes “the flavor in water comes from the Total Dissolved Solids, or TDS, levels. The higher the TDS level, the stronger the flavor.” Most research claims that food and beverage tastes originate from specific molecular combinations which humans subjectively evaluate using our sense of smell, taste, and touch. Former White House pastry chef Bill Yosses proclaimed that, “flavor is a concept created in the brain.” As evidenced by multiple definitions, flavor can be perceived differently depending on a taster’s subjective brain and sensory chemistry. Therefore, the ability to determine sensory attributes by objective, standardized instrumentation is a major need and trend in the food industry. Electronic tongues or taste sensors are one of the most novel, researched and exciting tools in this field to accomplish the goal of objective, analytical flavor characterization.
Aqvita uses the electronic tongue to fine-tune water recipes to create personalized taste profiles. An electronic nose (e-nose) and an electronic tongue (e-tongue) are part of a group of gas or chemical sensors that simulate a human nose or human tongue. Both e-nose and e-tongue technologies have shown great promise and utility in improving assessments of food and beverage quality characteristics compared with traditional detection methods. The e-tongue can analyze food “tastes” by capturing molecular “fingerprints” using gas or chemical sensor arrays. This data is captured and processed by applying mathematical optimizations to classify the sensory properties of a product and determine quality related properties. They have been widely used to assess sensory attributes, microbiological properties, and processing quality of simple and complex beverage types such as juices, edible oils, and many types of foods. The e-tongue can measure the following taste attributes: acidity, sweetness, saltiness, bitterness, umami and astringent. Moreover, and unlike other objective sensory technologies, this instrument has also been used to measure aftertastes.
Recently, the e-tongue was shown to be sensitive enough to successfully discriminate among differing properties of several beer types. The e-tongue could also accurately “taste” the differences between Hungarian mineral, spring, and tap water samples and categorize them according to the same geographical origins. Remarkably, the e-tongue was sensitive enough to accurately categorize the samples when they originated from the same location but were bottled under different companies with different brand names.
Aqvita Uses Electronic Tongue to Create Delicious, Personalized Mineralized Water Recipes
Aqvita employs the e-tongue to create mineralized water profiles which resemble the tastes of popular bottled mineral water brands*, natural spring water, or customized recipes for specific consumers. Aqvita successfully partnered with academic researchers to objectively analyze the taste of mineralized water produced from Aqvita’s technologies. Analytical experiments were conducted on water samples from premium mineral water brands and customized mineralized water recipes suggested by Aqvita. Researchers found the e-tongue to successfully differentiate among an array of differing mineral combinations containing sodium, chloride, potassium, nitrates, bicarbonates, sulfates, magnesium, and calcium. The tongue was sensitive enough to categorize the sample taste profiles by analyzing mineral compound combinations which affect the water flavors and even the aftertaste flavors.
The analytical results from the e-tongue are presented in the figure above. This figure shows a Principal Components Analysis (PCA), which categorizes clusters of samples based on their similarity. A PCA plot was created from the mineral composition results of the water samples: demineralized water (controls), water samples “A” and “B”; Aqvita customized water recipes, samples “C” and “D”; and popular bottled water brands Eden*, Neviot*, San Benedetto*, and Evian*. In this figure, the closer the data points are located on the PCA plot in the same quadrant, the e-tongue assesses these samples as more similar in terms of mineral compositions and ratios.
The figure displays that the control, demineralized water samples “A” and “B”, were categorized similarly. These samples would be considered tap water which has passed through a Brita®* charcoal cartridge water filter. These water samples may have a more metallic taste as sodium chlorides are not removed from Brita®* filters. Aqvita customized waters “C” and “D” were categorized in the same quadrant. These samples contain slightly differing recipes but are rich in magnesium chlorides, calcium carbonates, and no nitrates. These waters will taste more similarly to one another but much more dissimilar to waters “A” and “B.” Bottled mineral water brands Eden (Mey Eden), Neviot, San Benedetto, and Evian® were also accurately categorized into the same quadrants as they contain similar compounds and ratios of calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, carbonates, sulfates, chlorides and nitrates. These results demonstrate the utility and sensitivity of the e-tongue in discriminating mineral compounds and ratios of mineralized water samples which affect water flavor and health properties. Using this highly sensitive, objective, and analytical tool to create a variety of mineral and flavor profiles, Aqvita can be successful in designing mineralized water recipes which can closely resemble premium mineral water brands, natural spring water, or fine-tune recipes to create a specific flavor profile. Instead of buying bottles, Aqvita can recreate or even enhance a consumer’s favorite premium water brand’s mineral and flavor profile and make it available on-tap.
*Disclaimer: Third parties trade marks or water brands mentionned in this article are solely provided as examples and are in no way affiliated with Aqvita