Posted on 05/08/2008 6:10:17 AM PDT by Red Badger
Indispensable in hot kitchens: the nanotube
Oxford chemists have found a way of using carbon nanotubes to judge the heat of chilli sauces. The technology might soon be available commercially as a cheap, disposable sensor for use in the food industry.
Professor Richard Compton and his team at Oxford University have developed a sensitive technique to measure the levels of capsaicinoids, the substances that make chillies hot, in samples of chilli sauce. They report their findings in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal The Analyst.
The current industry procedure is to use a panel of taste-testers, and is highly subjective. Compton’s new method unambiguously determines the precise amount of capsaicinoids, and is not only quicker and cheaper than taste-testers but more reliable for purposes of food standards; tests could be rapidly carried out on the production line.They tested a range of chilli sauces, from the mild 'Tabasco Green Pepper' sauce to 'Mad Dog’s Revenge', which sports an extensive health warning and liability disclaimer.
The well-established Scoville method – currently the industry standard – involves diluting a sample until five trained taste testers cannot detect any heat from the chilli. The number of dilutions is called the Scoville rating; the relatively mild Jalapeño ranges from around 2,500-8,000, whereas the hottest chilli in the world, the 'Naga Jolokia', has a rating of 1,000,000. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) can also be used but this requires bulky, expensive equipment and detailed analysis of the capsaicinoids.
In Compton’s method, the capsaicinoids are adsorbed onto multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) electrodes. The team measures the current change as the capsaicinoids are oxidised by an electrochemical reaction, and this reading can be translated into Scoville units. The technique is called adsorptive stripping voltammetry (ASV), and is a relatively simple electrochemical method.
Professor Compton said: ‘ASV is a fantastic detection technique for capsaicinoids because it’s so simple - it integrates over all of the heat creating constituents because all of the capsaicinoids have essentially the same electrochemical response.’
Professor Compton has applied for a patent on the technology, and Oxford University’s technology transfer subsidiary ISIS Innovation is actively seeking backers to commercialise the technique.
They have chili in the UK ?
They probably eat more curry per-capita, than Indians, now.
Talk about taking all the fun out of eating spicy foods ...
Chili peppers are all over the world. Try some Thai peppers sometime. They must be off the scale hot!........
I surprised also. I did not know there was any food with flavor.
No, just the opposite! Now you’ll be able to measure your scale of “hotness” and document your progress. I, and many others, seek hotter and hotter peppers and recipes. Until now, all we had to go by was our own “tastes” but that is so variable from person to person and even to oneself on different days. I would assume that eventually they will develop a scientific consumer scale, not the Scoville scale since it’s so huge, that people can read on the labels.......
I would love to have a way to get consistency when I put up salsa and hot sauce this summer from the garden. After a severl tastings on canning day, my “sensor” gets numb and I have a hard time getting it right. This would be a big help.
All I know is whatever the peppers are put in it will be way overcooked and mushy.
That is the fault of the cook. Perhaps Brits don’t like “al dente” because they have no “dente”............
This could be adapted for numerous other "chemical level" tests.
I was picturing their teeth when I said that...
As a confirmed "chili-head", I have a similar problem: dishes that are "mild" to me seem to make others roll on the floor in agony -- especially if I have been taste-testing as I cook...
Exactly! People have a tolerance that waxes up and wanes with time. If you eat jalapeños daily, eventually they will be "mild" to you. But stop eating them for a month and they'll be hot all over again!.....
I would be surprised if other food ingredients wouldn’t alter the tests though.
I can’t believe that in the variety of chemicals found just in different hot sauces alone there aren’t other compounds that will oxidize along with the capsaicinoids to skew the results.
It takes all kinds. I annoy my wife and kids (who enjoy consistency) because I (the primary cook) prefer the unknown, and want things to taste different each time.
As Thoreau said ‘the only people who get anywhere interesting are the people who get lost’.
Just imagine his wife having to kiss that... *shudder*
Yes, I was thinking of that, too. Sweetness, Sourness, Bitterness, etc........
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