It would have been a shocking thing to realize this truth behind one of your favs. But it has a fair justification.
The extra space you find in your instant noodle cup is for the facilitation of the expansion of the noodles once you add hot water into it. It is not for cheating purposes. Noodles swell when cooked due to the absorption of water by the starch granules in them. It helps amylose in starch molecules to bind to one another, forming a gel. This process enhances the digestibility of starch and thickens the noodles.
When you close your nose, you lose the ability to sense the smell of the food. The smell of food contributes nearly 80% of the flavour sensation. They have a converging effect in producing the flavour. A special area in the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex identifies taste sensations, while the olfactory cortex of the cerebral cortex identifies odour sensations. The taste and odour sensations combine in the adjacent parts of the orbital cortex to perceive the flavour of the food. That is why you cannot differentiate the tastes of apples, potatoes, and onions when you eat them with your nose closed.
Blue strawberries were not originally a natural product. It was invented in laboratories through genetic modification. The blue colour of the strawberries is due to genes of a fish called Arctic Flounder Fish, added to strawberries with the intension of extending their shelf life. This gene has anti-freezing properties which protect the fish from freezing in extremely cold waters. The genetically modified strawberries, when placed in a freezer, in turn, show a drastically slow rate of deterioration.
Food is fun to explore, and nature’s secrets are still out there to be uncovered!!
References:
tasty.co, (2014) 17-Shocking-Food-Facts-That-Will-Make-You-Question-Everything online]. Available at: https://tasty.co/ [Accessed on: 01 September 2021]
Brightside.me, 26-shocking-Food-Facts-About-Food-You-Didn’t-Know [online]. Available at: https://brightside.me/ [Accessed on: 01 September 2021]
Mystalk.net, fashion-beans [online]. Available at: https://www.mystalk.net/ [Accessed on: 01 September 2021]
vpm.org, (2016) Blue-Strawberries-and-Rainbow-Colored-Roses-Buyer-Beware [online]. Available at: https://vpm.org/ [Accessed on: 01 September 2021]
Article by : Gayashi Jayarathne
Society of Food Science and Technology
Wayamba University of Sri Lanka