Numerical modeling of human mastication, a simplistic view to design foods adapted to mastication abilities

The human diet contains a large variety of aromas, tastes and textures. The latter is particularly important since it determines whether foods are difficult to process orally and thus can be one source of food avoidance. It has also been reported in recent literature that food texture was a main driver for satiation processes and thus it is of interest for the food manufacturing industry to be able to control textural properties of food within the limits of acceptability for the consumer. For solid foods, fracture force is an important aspect of texture and we were interested in understanding the physiological drivers of this variable. We present a third order lever model of human bite force and the space between teeth based on data from the literature on human oral anatomy. The results from the model are compared with experimental data available in the literature. The model compares well with the experimental data (r(2) = 0.95, p = 0.0010, MPE= 0.18), and can thus be used to derive a diagram of how food properties such as piece size or fracture force can be used to define whether foods are close to the limits of what the human jaw is capable of breaking. Such modeling tools can be used to define texture rules for tailor-made nutrition for specific populations based on their mastication abilities. The limitations of this modeling approach are also discussed, particularly the fact that tooth shape should also be considered, as this will ultimately define fracture stress, which is the deterministic factor of food fracture. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.