Some people are born to cook, and others seem to be incapable of making toast without burning it. Well help is at hand, as a UK-based company has developed a new technology which is able to sense the browness of toast to guarantee perfect toast every time without burning.
Paul Brown of Magnetic, Cambridge's new product and innovation design company, has patented the system which monitors invisible sugar and/or carbon particles using an ionising particle sensor.
Different particles are given off as caramelisation effects occur within the toast, crucially at the perfect brown level, creating the well loved sweet smell and taste, and until now their existence, particularly for use as a sensing opportunity, has been unknown.
The particles are sampled from the hot rising air off the toast surface into a suction tube, driven through the sensor and exhausted through the base. When a preset amount of particles are detected the cycle is terminated.
Re-toasting the same piece of toast will immediately emit the same particle count and so will be automatically popped up, still brown. This can repeated around seven times before the same piece starts to blacken, offering obvious breakfast time convenience and safety benefits in the home, industry and hospitals.
The real benefit of the product is it adjusts to every different type of bread and condition automatically, i.e. different colours, temperatures (even frozen), moistness and densities, meaning the user does not have to guess at a time or setting any more.