Food steganography

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9417221-B2
Application number	US-201314011421-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 27, 2013
Priority date	Aug 27, 2013
Publication date	Aug 16, 2016
Grant date	Aug 16, 2016

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for calculating a food additive. A first method includes identifying chemical compounds of an averse food ingredient, identifying chemical compounds of a flavorful food ingredient and calculating a set of chemical compounds for the food additive such that an olfactory perception of a mixture of the averse food ingredient, the flavorful food ingredient and the food additive is the same as an olfactory perception of only the flavorful food ingredient. A first device includes a database storing information identifying chemical compounds of an averse food ingredient and identifying chemical compounds of a flavorful food ingredient, and a processor for calculating a food additive such that an olfactory perception of flavors of a mixture of the averse food ingredient, the flavorful food ingredient and the food additive is the same as an olfactory perception of only the flavorful food ingredient.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for formulating a food additive, the method comprising:
identifying a first set of chemical compounds of an averse food ingredient;
identifying a second set of chemical compounds of a flavorful food ingredient; and
selecting a formulation for the food additive, wherein the formulation includes a new, third set of chemical compounds, different from the first set of chemical compounds and the second set of chemical compounds, and defined individual chemical compound quantities in which to mix the third set of chemical compounds, such that an olfactory perception of a mixture of the averse food ingredient, the flavorful food ingredient and the food additive is the same as an olfactory perception of only the flavorful food ingredient, and wherein the selecting comprises solving an optimization problem stated as

min
a

⁢



P
⁡

(

g
+
h
+
a

)

-

P
⁡

(
g
)

-
w



,

wherein P(g+h+a) is a first vector projection in a perceptual space that corresponds to a set of vectors in a physicochemical space for a combination of the first set of chemical compounds, the second set of chemical compounds, and the third set of chemical compounds, P(g) is a vector projection in the perceptual space that corresponds to a vector in the physicochemical space for the second set of chemical compounds, and w is a vector in the perceptual space that corresponds to an olfactory white.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the
optimization problem minimizes a difference between the first vector projection and the second vector projection.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein minimizing the difference comprises normalizing a solution to the vector representation in the perceptual space that corresponds to the olfactory white.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the perceptual space comprises a multidimensional space where each dimension is associated with a different olfactory or flavor perceptual descriptor.

5. The method of claim 2 , the perceptual space comprises a multidimensional space where at least one dimension is associated with at least two different olfactory or flavor perceptual descriptors.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the selecting comprises determining a set of physicochemical properties for the food additive, where the determining the set of physicochemical properties for the food additive is based upon at least one correlation between the perceptual space and the physicochemical space.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selecting comprises:
calculating a set of physicochemical properties for the food additive such that the olfactory perception of the mixture of the averse food ingredient, the flavorful food ingredient and the food additive is the same as the olfactory perception of only the flavorful food ingredient.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the selecting further comprises:
selecting chemical compounds in the third set of chemical compounds such that, when the chemical compounds in the third set of chemical compounds are combined in the defined individual chemical compound quantities, the food additive comprises the set of physicochemical properties that is calculated for the food additive.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying the first set of chemical compounds of the averse food ingredient comprises sensing chemical compounds in the averse food ingredient by gas chromatography, and wherein the identifying the second set of chemical compounds of the flavorful food ingredient comprises sensing chemical compounds in the flavorful food by gas chromatography.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the third set of chemical compounds is selected based at least in part upon an availability of one or more chemical compounds in the third set of chemical compounds or such that a cost of the third set of chemical compounds is minimized.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a first set of physicochemical properties of the first set of chemical compounds of the averse food ingredient; and
determining a second set of physicochemical properties of the second set of chemical compounds of the flavorful food ingredient.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the determining the first set of physicochemical properties of the first set of chemical compounds of the averse food ingredient comprises performing a database lookup to match the first set of chemical compounds of the averse food ingredient with their respective physicochemical properties, and wherein the determining the second set of physicochemical properties of the second set of chemical compounds of the flavorful food ingredient comprises performing a database lookup to match the second set of chemical compounds of the flavorful food ingredient with their respective physicochemical properties.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
determining a first set of vectors in the physicochemical space based upon the first set of physicochemical properties of the first set of chemical compounds of the averse food ingredient; and
determining a second set of vectors in the physicochemical space based upon the second set of physicochemical properties of the second set of chemical compounds of the flavorful food ingredient.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the physicochemical space comprises a multidimensional space where each dimensions is associated with a different physicochemical property.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the physicochemical space comprises a normed multidimensional space where at least one dimension is associated with at least two different physicochemical properties.

16. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
calculating the first vector projection, wherein the calculating the first vector projection is based on the first set of vectors in the physicochemical space and the second set of vectors in the physicochemical space; and
calculating the second vector projection, wherein the second vector projection is based on the second set of vectors in the physicochemical space.

17. A method for formulating a food additive, the method comprising:
identifying a first set of chemical compounds of an averse food ingredient;
identifying a second set of chemical compounds of a flavorful food ingredient;
determining a set of physicochemical properties of the first set of chemical compounds of the averse food ingredient;
determining a set of physicochemical properties of the second set of chemical compounds of the flavorful food ingredient;
calculating physicochemical properties for the food additive such that an olfactory perception of a mixture

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Varshney Kush R
• Varshney Lav R

Classifications

• G01N30/00

  Investigating or analysing materials by separation into components using adsorption, absorption or similar phenomena or using ion-exchange, e.g. chromatography {or field flow fractionation} (G01N3/00, G01N5/00, G01N7/00, G01N9/00, G01N11/00, G01N13/00, G01N15/00, G01N17/00, G01N19/00, G01N21/00, G01N22/00, G01N23/00, G01N24/00, G01N25/00, G01N27/00, G01N29/00 take precedence) · CPC title

• A23L1/22075

  Human Necessities · mapped topic

• A23L1/30

  Human Necessities · mapped topic

• A23L1/015

  Human Necessities · mapped topic

• A23L1/293

  Human Necessities · mapped topic