2023-06-10 11:56:35
Texture, fat, salt: seemingly banal, the potato chips you eat are the result of expert scientific work aimed at finding the perfect balance to make you addicted.
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Every time a new potato chip flavor hits the grocery store shelves, it’s the result of many trials, all aimed at finding the perfect balance that will allow that new taste to hijack your brain’s reward circuitry.
This combination of fat, salt and texture is achieved thanks to a model invented in the 1960s by Howard Moskowitz, a psychophysicist who graduated from Harvard University.
His work led to the discovery of the bliss point. It is the precise level of an ingredient required to maximize the taste pleasure of a food product. Above this point, the amount of salt or fat is too high to be enjoyable. Below this point, it is too little.
It is clear that the recipe seems to work, since 97% of Canadians say they bought a bag of chips during their last visit to the grocery store, according to the research firm Nielsen. The potato chip industry generates sales of more than $2 billion each year.
The global salty snacks market is expected to grow from a value of just over US$139 billion in 2020 to just over US$216 billion in 2027, according to a report published by the Research and Markets in 2022.
No need to be hungry
In the years following his discovery, Howard Moskowitz was hired by several food giants like Campbell Soup, Kraft and Pepsico.
The objective? Achieve a specific amount of sugar in certain products to maximize endorphin secretion in your brain. This sometimes causes you to have irresistible cravings for these foods. You don’t have to be hungry to eat it without stopping.
Thus, in addition to being used for potato chips and other similar snack foods, bliss point is used to improve the taste of sweet products such as ice cream, cookies or drinks.
However, it is also used in unsuspected ways. In 2015, the journalist from New York Times, Michael Moss has published a book in which he looks at the role of packaged and processed foods in the obesity epidemic in the United States.
He explains that sugar is now added to certain products such as bread, yogurt or tomato sauce in order to reach this famous point of bliss. By making such foods sweeter, food companies would make consumers expect everything to be sweet. The strategy would be the cause of a form of sugar addiction which has serious consequences on the health of citizens.
Nutritionists interviewed as part of the survey indicated that children, who are very sensitive to sugars, would be particularly affected. They might find that vegetables are not pleasant to eat simply because they are not sweet enough.
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