TāStation® demo (VIDEO)
Caption
TāStation® (taste+station) is an entirely new approach to taste testing and measurement. Highly efficient and cost effective, the TāStation® technology is used for evaluating new sweeteners, taste enhancers and bitter blockers and also has broad application in flavor optimization, providing a combinatorial strategy for developing the best tasting ingredient mixtures.
In addition to its many applications in the food and beverage industry, TāStation® technology is particularly well suited for helping consumer healthcare and pharmaceutical companies evaluate the taste of new formulations of medications. This is because TāStation® is able to generate tremendous amounts of data using minute quantities of drug. The total amount of API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) required for an entire taste test is a small fraction of a typical single daily dose. The capability to test with this minimal level of pharmaceutical exposure cannot be accomplished by any other method or service provider.
The TāStation® includes a portable workstation with an automated high throughput system for delivering small samples in rapid succession to a subject. The TāStation® system has the capacity to determine the taste characteristics of a hundred samples in less than an hour. An individual can be trained through an interactive algorithm, which operates like a game, to make responses on a touch sensitive monitor that are dependent on the subject's ability to detect and distinguish taste stimuli. Responses are rewarded with an incremental point system that incentivizes sensory acuity. The subjects are focused on the game and may not even be aware that their taste sensitivities and preferences are being recorded.
More data means greater informative power. The comparatively large data sets that are rapidly generated by the TāStation® system are amenable to sophisticated computational and analytic tools not practical for the limited information from traditional taste assessment. Among the many advantages that result are vastly reduced errors, greater precision in detecting taste effects, improved consistency and predictive value of test outcomes, and the ability to more quickly and broadly test across a diversity of human subjects.
Credit
Opertech Bio
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None
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Original content