Designing the perfect piece of chocolate

We like some foods, and dislike others. Of course, the way food tastes is important, but mouthfeel, and even the sound that food makes when we bite it, also determine whether we enjoy the eating experience. Is it possible to design edible materials that optimize this enjoyment? Physicists and food researchers show that indeed it is. In research that was published in Soft Matter this week, researchers from the University of Amsterdam, Delft University, and Unilever, demonstrate that the mouthfeel of an edible substance can be designed, just like properties of many other materials can. That is: they create metamaterials , materials that are not found in nature but that are carefully constructed in the lab. Their building material of choice is not wood, concrete or glass - they build their materials from chocolate. Design of mouthfeel.