{"id":761443,"date":"2020-05-28T06:45:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T10:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=761443"},"modified":"2020-05-28T06:45:45","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T10:45:45","slug":"artificial-tongue-for-maple-syrup-weeds-out-batches-with-buddy-off-flavors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=761443","title":{"rendered":"Artificial \u201ctongue\u201d for maple syrup weeds out batches with \u201cbuddy\u201d off flavors"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"rss-wrap\">\n<figure class=\"intro-image intro-left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/maple2-800x533-1.jpg\" alt=\"Different brands of maple syrup clutter a shelf.\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\" style=\"font-size:0.8em\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/maple2.jpg\" class=\"enlarge-link\" data-height=\"799\" data-width=\"1200\">Enlarge<\/a> <span class=\"sep\">\/<\/span> A sampling of different brands of Canadian maple syrup. Scientists at the University of Montreal have developed an artificial &#8220;tongue&#8221; using gold nanoparticles to detect batches with &#8220;buddy&#8221; off flavors. (credit: <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"caption-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/search\/photographer?assettype=image&amp;family=editorial&amp;photographer=Roberto%20Machado%20Noa&amp;sort=best#license\">Roberto Machado Noa\/LightRocket via Getty Images<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<div><a name=\"page-1\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Genuine maple syrup is a treat for the taste buds, whether you prefer light golden varieties or robust darker syrups. But sometimes batches can have off-putting flavors. Scientists at the University of Montreal in Quebec, Canada, have developed an artificial &#8220;tongue&#8221; using gold nanoparticles that can weed out bad batches early on. It&#8217;s not so much an electronic device as a simple, portable chemistry test that detects a color change when an off flavor is present in a sample, according to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.rsc.org\/en\/content\/articlelanding\/2020\/ay\/c9ay01942a#!divAbstract\">a recent paper<\/a> published in the journal Analytical Methods.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Especially here in Canada, we take maple syrup for granted,&#8221; said co-author Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Masson of the University of Montreal &#8220;But it is much more complicated than we had anticipated. It has some of the same complexities as fine wine and whiskey.&#8221;\u00a0Quebec is the largest producer of maple syrup, accounting for about 70 percent of the world&#8217;s supply.<\/p>\n<p>He is not referring to cheap knockoffs whose primary ingredients are high-fructose corn syrup with imitation maple flavoring. To be considered a true maple syrup, at least in Canada, a product must be made entirely from maple sap\u00a0collected from maple trees, usually sugar maple, red maple, or black maple varieties.\u00a0Maple syrup is mostly sugar, water, and a small amount of organic molecules that are responsible for the final product&#8217;s flavor profile. Those compounds account for just 1 percent of the content, but it is a crucial 1 percent, determining whether a given syrup is caramelized, smoked, salty, or woody, among the 60 or so possible categories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1674034#p3\">Read 12 remaining paragraphs<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1674034&amp;comments=1\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.arstechnica.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?a=GdQAcD-gb8s:pBpCM5XA-wA:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.arstechnica.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?a=GdQAcD-gb8s:pBpCM5XA-wA:F7zBnMyn0Lo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.arstechnica.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?a=GdQAcD-gb8s:pBpCM5XA-wA:qj6IDK7rITs\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.arstechnica.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?a=GdQAcD-gb8s:pBpCM5XA-wA:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#013;<br \/>\n&#013;<br \/>\nSource: Ars Technica &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1674034\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Artificial \u201ctongue\u201d for maple syrup weeds out batches with \u201cbuddy\u201d off flavors<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Enlarge \/ A sampling of different brands of Canadian maple syrup. Scientists at the University of Montreal have developed an artificial &#8220;tongue&#8221; using gold nanoparticles to detect batches with &#8220;buddy&#8221; off flavors. (credit: Roberto Machado Noa\/LightRocket via Getty Images) Genuine &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=761443\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":761444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,110],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-761443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-technica","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-ars-technica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=761443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/761444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=761443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=761443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=761443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}