This was found out through joint research with Professor Yukie Yanagisawa et al of Wayo Women’s University
Japan’s Kewpie Corporation has confirmed that adding mayonnaise or emulsified dressings improves the ease of eating foods such as vegetables that the elderly find difficult to eat. This was found out through joint research with Professor Yukie Yanagisawa et al of Wayo Women’s University. The results of this research were announced at the 35th General Meeting of the Japanese Society for Mastication Science and Health Promotion, held on September 14 and 15, 2024.
Declines in the ability to eat (bite strength and swallowing ability) not only make it difficult to eat meals day-to-day but can also result in food entering the trachea and leading to aspiration pneumonia. Eating ability declining with age is considered a social issue in Japan, with the highest proportion of elderly in the world. Rapidly ageing populations are expected on a global basis as well, and international efforts to standardise dysphagia foods have begun.
In Japan, in addition to the use of foods designed to be easy to eat, called “universal design foods”, there are proposals, especially at the front lines of home care guidance, to use mayonnaise or emulsified dressings (emulsified condiments) that most households would have as a way to make daily food easier to eat.
It was conjectured that mixing emulsified condiments with hard-to-eat foodstuffs such as vegetables would help them clump together and provide smoothness, leading to improvements to their ease of eating. This research aimed at scientifically understanding the improved ease of eating through the use of these emulsified condiments. To that end, a sensory evaluation was carried out using middle-aged and elderly participants.
In all assessed foods, the addition of emulsified condiments was shown to significantly improve the ease of eating. In particular, participants with declining bite strength felt the results more strongly than those of normal strength, showing it had the possibility of being effective.
