In Pictures: Food of 7th Door in Seoul, South Korea

Fine dining modern Korean Cuisine

No.18 of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024

Infographic: The World’s Biggest Oil Producers in 2023

Source : Visual Capitalist

Belgian Scientists Train AI to Predict the Taste and Quality of Beer

Sichong Wang wrote . . . . . . . . .

Belgian scientists have unveiled an AI method for beer analysis with models capable of predicting consumer ratings of beers and identifying the aroma compounds that could enhance their flavors.

Published in Nature Communications, the study looks into the possibility of understanding and predicting the flavor of beer — a complex challenge owing to the intricate interplay of chemical compounds and subjective taste preferences.

Traditional methods, reliant on descriptive guides and personal tastes, fall short of providing a scientific basis for flavor comparison. Seeking to transcend these limitations, scientists have used chemical analysis techniques to study the flavor profiles of beers with unprecedented precision.

Kevin Verstrepen, professor at KU Leuven and director of the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology and the Leuven Institute for Beer Research, tells Food Ingredients First: “Our model went a step beyond because it can better predict the effect of the complex interactions between individual compounds.”

“This shows, for example, that some of the aroma compounds that are generally considered as negative off-flavors, like ethyl acetate, dimethyl sulfide, diacetyl and certain aldehydes, can actually have a positive effect on beer aroma when they are present in lower quantities and co-occur with other compounds like the fruity acetate esters.”

Machine learning methods

Over five years, scientists dissected the chemical makeup of 250 distinct Belgian beers. They measured over 200 chemical properties of each beer and combined these findings with sensory analysis conducted by a panel of trained experts.

The key innovation came from the application of machine learning to this vast array of data. The research team mapped data from over 180,000 consumer reviews and trained ten different machine learning models, with Gradient Boosting emerging as the most effective. This model outperformed traditional statistical predictions, accurately linking chemical profiles to complex food features and consumer appreciation.

The AI’s analysis highlighted specific compounds previously underestimated in their impact on beer flavor and appreciation. By adding these compounds to commercial beers, the researchers achieved variants with improved consumer ratings.

Verstrepen suggests that further refinements can be made to better model individual taste preferences as well as the influence of the environment, mood and age of consumers.

Healthy beer

Consumers are increasingly adopting low and no-alcohol options, prompting beverage innovators to develop adult-tasting alcohol alternatives that prioritize both health and flavor, driven by trends favoring moderate alcohol consumption and growing social acceptance of these beverages.

“Our biggest goal now is to make better alcohol-free beer. Using our model, we have already succeeded in creating a cocktail of natural aroma compounds that mimic the taste and smell of alcohol without the risk of a hangover,” says Verstrepen.

Last winter, Belgium-based beer company Thrive introduced a non-alcoholic beer fortified with ten essential vitamins, including 50% of the daily recommended intake of vitamin D3 and all B vitamins per can. This beverage offers nutritional benefits while boosting the immune system and reducing fatigue, with fewer calories compared to traditional beers.

“We see a lot of room for progression with those beer products, mimicking the alcohol aroma. But the general methods are certainly also applicable to any other food, although this would require to again analyze and taste a lot of samples,” concludes Verstrepen.

Source: Food Ingredient 1st

Chart: Top 100 Most Polluted Cities in the World

Source : Chartr

Good Sleep Can Make You Feel Young

Dennis Thompson wrote . . . . . . . . .

A good night’s sleep can make you feel years younger, while crummy sleep leaves you doddering around like an oldster, a new study shows.

Sleeping well enough to feel extremely sharp when you wake is associated with feeling four years younger than one’s actual age, researchers found.

On the other hand, extreme sleepiness makes a person feel six years older than they really are, results show.

“This means that going from feeling alert to sleepy added a striking 10 years to how old one felt,” said researcher Leonie Balter, with Stockholm University’s Department of Psychology.

For this study, researchers first surveyed 429 people ages 18 to 70 about how old they felt, how much sleep they get and how sleepy they felt.

The survey results showed that for each night a person had insufficient sleep, they felt about three months older than they actually were, on average.

Based on this, the researchers designed an experiment to test whether good sleep could make someone feel young and vibrant.

Previous research has shown that feeling younger than one’s actual age is associated with living a longer and healthier life, and there’s even evidence that people who feel young have younger brains, researchers said.

“Given that sleep is essential for brain function and overall well-being, we decided to test whether sleep holds any secrets to preserving a youthful sense of age,” Balter said.

The experiment involved 186 people ages 18 to 46. Participants were asked to restrict their sleep to just four hours in bed for two nights, and at another time asked to sleep nine hours in bed for two nights.

After a couple four-hour nights, participants felt 4.4 years older, on average, than they did when they got sufficient sleep, researchers report.

The new study was published March 27 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences.

“Safeguarding our sleep is crucial for maintaining a youthful feeling,” Balter concluded. “This, in turn, may promote a more active lifestyle and encourage behaviors that promote health, as both feeling young and alert are important for our motivation to be active.”

Source: HealthDay