Japanese scientists have developed electric sticks to combat excess salt

Today’s silent killers all over the world are both sugar and salt. These “white killers” are greatly abused by society because they simply improve the food itself, and therefore, in an effort to reduce salt only, scientists in cooperation with the company have developed electric sticks that are … revolutionary.

These electric sticks increase the perceived salt content of the food

As the average Japanese consumes more than 10 grams of salt per day (twice the recommended level), the team at Meiji University decided to fight it. To this end, he teamed up with food and beverage company Kirin Holdings to develop electronic chopsticks that increase the perceived saltiness of food without increasing the salt content.

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These sticks are the result of earlier work by scientists who showed that sodium chloride ions give food a salty taste, and monosodium glutamate ions – sweet. They used it in their chopsticks, allowing them to send a weak electric charge to the user wearing a special band. Thanks to this, the device ionizes the sodium contained in the food, giving it an additional salty taste, even when the total amount of salt in the food is low.

To test if their method was working, the researchers recruited 36 volunteers and gave them food samples containing the usual amount of salt and a reduced amount of salt to taste. The volunteers were able to distinguish between the two food samples when they ate with traditional chopsticks. However, when eaten with “electric” chopsticks, both food samples were perceived to be equally salty. Thanks to this, it was confirmed that it is now possible to reduce the salt content by 30% without losing the taste.