Molecular Mock tail

By

Korakoch Thangsombat 5861306

Kochakorn Thangsombat 5861307

Capstone Project
Mr. Matthew Allsopp
Mahidol University International Demonstration School
Academic Year 2017 - 2018

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Introduction
In the 21st centuries, World has been changed including the cooking methods and style of
eating such as in the fields of culinary arts and culinary science which unite into one. Many of
the famous restaurants begin to use scientific theories to make a dish to innovate and design
delicious dishes with various kind of textures, flavours, and sensations. So, this leads to the new
approaches to food consumption in consumers’ perceptions. In addition, the food interest in Thai
Market rapidly grown because people are increasing awareness of the role of food, individual's
economic status, and people curious to try new dishes.

The purpose of the study is the approach to the contributions on food developments in
food science and technology which relate to the innovation of food by using the process of
molecular gastronomy. The new fields of food innovation were introduced by Hervé This and
Nicholas Kurti who is the chemist and physicist in the kitchen. This experiment is to examine the
factors that affect people choice on food and develop an existing product to test on consumer
acceptance and increase the value of the product itself.

The significant between the principle of science-based cooking methods and molecular
gastronomy is a question. It is possible to say that the principle of molecular gastronomy is
known as “modernist cuisine or the “experimental cuisine”. Molecular Gastronomy is different
from the regular cooking in the way that it is the use of scientific principles in the process of
cooking. Basically, it is about your love of food combining with your creativity and science. It is
a fancier way of cooking and is way too expensive than normal cooking. While the regular
cooking is the cooking that we do in our daily lives, for our everyday meals.

Therefore, we discuss the new fields of cooking which involve the use of technology.
This definitely considers how the principle of molecular gastronomy could inspire food
technologists to arise in the aspects relating to food quality and creativity in their product
development efforts.

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Background information

According to the study, the process of molecular gastronomy has been introduced to the
food processing in 1825 by physicists from Oxford name Nicholas Kurti and Hervé This.
Molecular Gastronomy is food science techniques which used to improve food preparation by
using knowledge from physical and chemical transformations. In this technique, it requires
scientific, artistic and techniques to create a cuisine. The establishment of the molecular
gastronomy opposed to food preparation for the majority of the market. The studies of the
gastronomy also include the heat conduction, convection, and transfer, interactions between
liquid, flavour stability, stability of flavour, solubility, dispersion, and texture/ flavour
relationship.

In addition, one of the technique is spherification, recently

transferred from the laboratory to kitchen. From the Christophe
Chipot study (1994), he describes the physical principles of
spherification and shows how insights it can gain from simulations
into the formation and stability of alginate spheres. The principle of
spherification uses reaction between calcium alginate and calcium
chloride. When the chemicals mixed together the calcium chloride
ions will create a chain of alginate polymers, turns into cross-linked
and forms a gel. The technique used to encapsulate cells or provide
cells carrier for the cell. Further, he did show that the same gelling
agent can be used in material science, notably to solubility otherwise insoluble carbon nanotubes.

Factors that affect people food choices

There are three factors that affect people food choice: family, environment, and
economics. According to the Harvard School of Public Health stated that "You develop many of
your food preferences in childhood, based on what your family of origin chose to eat." For
example: If your family's meal is the heavy dishes and some certain food such as vegetables and
fruits are not available. This habit may continue to influence children when they are adults.
Environment The environment where you live and work have a great impact on people food
choice. according to the study "physiology & behavior" in 2005, people who live closer to
grocery and health-food stores tend to eat more healthfully. in some case, the poor

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neighborhoods will have less access to food and nutrition. Moreover, if you attend school or
work in the neighborhood where food choices are limited to unhealthy food, it can impact their
food choices. Economics the food products and services are influenced by the economic system
in the form of money. if the fast food or process food tends to be cheaper than fresh fruits and
vegetables, however, fast food and process food tend to be chosen as an option. From the study
of Simone French of the University of Minnesota school of public health says that if that
individual has low income, they will need to consider about how much money will they get to
spend on food and size of their meals.

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Materials / Equipment

Sodium Alginate 30 gram Lychee can

4 spoons of Sugar Deionized Water

Calcium Lactate 1 tablespoon Soda

Utensils

Blender big bowls / small bowls

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Measuring cup Measuring spoon

Stirring spoon Cocktail glass

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Experimental Procedure
1. Firstly, we did in this project is researching.
a. We did the research on the definition and history of the molecular gastronomy.
We also did the research on the factors that affect people food choice.
2. Secondly, we did in this project is cooking methods. For this step, we split this method
into 6 parts:
a. The first part is pouring 2 grams of Sodium Alginate in the small size blender.
Then blend it until the substance get cut into very tiny pieces.

b. The second part is preparing 4 cups of deionized water in a bowl. Then pour 5
grams of Calcium Lactate in the bowl. Next mixed it evenly and set aside for an
hour.

c. Third, prepared a bowl of a deionized water.

d. Fourth, pour a can of lychee in the normal size blender. Then blend it for a while
and then pour ½ cup of deionized water in the blender. Pouring 2 grams of

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 Sodium Alginate (in part 1) in the blender and blend it again for about 10 minutes
to completely dissolve.

e. The fifth part is using the dropper to take in the substance in part 4 and put it into
the bowl (in part 2). Then we scoop all of the lychee balls and put it in the bowl of
deionized water. The last part is preparing the cocktail glass. Then pours 3 cups of
⅛ cups of mocktail lychee flavor in the glass.

f. Lastly, pours 3 cups of ⅛ cups of soda in the glass and scoop the lychee ball
(from part 5) into the glass.

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Results

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Discussion
The survey asked 69 people as a sample group in different range of ages to do the survey
about their opinion on the Molecular Mock tail. There are 4 questions in total that have been
asked to answer in the survey. Firstly, the survey asks about the age of people who complete
survey. Follow by, whether the sample group of people have every try mock tail before. Then,
according to the picture, did you like or dislike molecular gastronomy mock tail? Lastly, if there
is a new innovation of the mock tail product that launched in the market, will you decide to buy
it or not? Why?

In the first question, the majority of people who took this survey is in the range of 18 - 24
years old with approximately 34.8%. Followed by, the group sample of ages under 18, 25 - 34
years old, and 35 - 44 years old approximately 27.5%, 21.7%, and 7.2%, respectively. The group
of 35 - 44 years old. A minority of people who took this survey are in the range of 45 - 54 years
old and over 54 years old with 4.3%.

For the second question, their answer is just over half 50.7% responding no in the survey.
For the third question, their answer is 58% like and 42% dislike which is not show the different
much about the appearance of the mock tail. Lastly, if it launched in the market will they likely
to purchase the products or not? This question has been answered that 52.2% said they will
purchase the products.

The third question, the samples who chose like is moderately more than dislike within the
percentage of 58 and the percentage of 42. Lastly, approximately 52.2% of the consumers choose
to purchase the products. It is significant that there is not much difference among those answers.
Therefore, if the samples are larger there will possible be some changes in the answers.

Errors

● There are several errors that we found while doing the experiment such as the Sodium
Alginate chemical comes as a big shape. This makes it hard to dissolve in the lychees
liquid. Another one found errors is that the lychee ball breaks into little pieces quickly
when we put it in the mock tail drinks.
● The recipe that we created changes a few times causes some difficulties when we are
trying to make it successful by their appearance and taste.
●
Further directions

● We will use the more various fruits to see whether the sphere still breaks or not.
● We will apply more flavor to taste the new combinations of the mock tail drinks.

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 ● We could possibly try to make a dessert or food by using the principle of the molecular
gastronomy as well.
● There could be larger samples space in order to decrease the bias of the results.
● We could provide a survey with a sample of the actual product for those sample group to
taste and judge product with fairness.
●
Conclusion

Overall, according to the survey from the sample group of 69 people, it shows that the
molecular gastronomy mock tail has been somewhat successful from the interested in the market.
So, it is possible to develop normal mock tail to molecular mock tail and still received the
majority of the consumers' acceptance. The significant of the survey is that the sample group
between the range of the age under 18, 18 - 24, and 25 - 34 years old tends to be the target
groups of the product. To extend, about 52.2% of the sample who took the survey said they will
purchase the products.

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References
Barham, Skibsted, Bredie, Frost, Møller, Risbo, Snitkjær, and Mortensen (2010, April 14).
Molecular Gastronomy: A New Emerging Scientific Discipline. Retrieved January 22, 2018
from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2855180/

Cassi, Davide (2011, March 03). Science and cooking: the era of molecular cuisine. Retrieved
January 29, 2018 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3059914/

Chipot, Chris (2014, November 20). THE SCIENCE OF SPHERIFICATION: A LECTURE ON

AVANT-GARDE CUISINE & LIVE COOKING DEMONSTRATION. Retrieved January 10,
2018 from https://beckman.illinois.edu/news/2014/11/the-science-of-spherification

Elsevier (2011, December 01). Cooking and nutritional science: Gastronomy goes further.
Retrieved January 25, 2018 from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878450X11000059

Hervé, Mullet (2009, February 16). Age and factors influencing consumer behaviour. Retrieved
February 02, 2018 from
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2009.00743.x

Martinac, Paula (n.d.). What Are Four Things That Can Affect Food Choices?. Retrieved
January 28, 2018 from
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/four-things-can-affect-food-choices-3699.html

Mojca Jez (2016, October 27). Molecular Gastronomy – The Food Science. Retrieved January
22, 2018 from https://splice-bio.com/molecular-gastronomy-the-food-science/

Sunistha (2017, February 24). What Is Molecular Gastronomy & How Is It Different?. Retrieved
January 22, 2018 from http://www.cooktube.in/what-is-molecular-gastronomy-how-is-it-
different/

Pratap, Abhijeet (2018, March 21). Effect of Demographic Factors on Consumer Behavior: Age,
sex, Income and Education. Retrieved March 25, 2018 from
https://www.cheshnotes.com/2017/07/effect-of-demographic-factors-on-consumer-behavior-age-
sex-income-and-education/

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