Texture Modification Technologies and Their Opportunities for the Production of Dysphagia Foods: A Review

Dysphagia or swallowing difficulty is a common morbidity experienced by those who have suffered a stroke or those undergone such treatments as head and neck surgeries. Dysphagic patients require special foods that are easier to swallow. Various technologies, including high-pressure processing, high-hydrodynamic pressure processing, pulsed electric field treatment, plasma processing, ultrasound-assisted processing, and irradiation have been applied to modify food texture to make it more suitable for such patients. This review surveys the applications of these technologies for food texture modification of products made of meat, rice, starch, and carbohydrates, as well as fruits and vegetables. The review also attempts to categorize, via the use of such key characteristics as hardness and viscosity, texture-modified foods into various dysphagia diet levels. Current and future trends of dysphagia food production, including the use of three-dimensional food printing to reduce the design and fabrication time, to enhance the sensory characteristics, as well as to create visually attractive foods, are also mentioned.