Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/626800
I swallowability The quest for easier-to-swallow tablets This article summarizes a study that enlisted volunteers to assess how easily they could swallow a 1,075-milligram tablet pre- sented in three shapes: almond, round, and elongated. n a previous article, one of the authors argued that— until recently—the people who formulate and design tablets focused on engineering factors, and that the organoleptic aspects were given little if any consideration [1]. Yet organoleptic factors are the key to obtain a positive answer when the patient or consumer looks at the tablet and asks, "Do I want to swallow this?" Orkla Health, a company that manufactures food sup- plements, herbals, vitamins, and minerals—most as tablets—originated and sponsored the work summarized here because many of the tablets it produces are large (more than 600 milligrams), and many consumers find them difficult to swallow. While little can be done to reduce the mass, the company wanted to learn whether its tablets could be made more "swallowable." The same issue has been raised regarding pharmaceuticals [2]. In a more recent study, researchers described a multicen- ter, intercultural study that examined which of people's sen- sory, hedonic, and efficacy expectations are associated with pharmaceutical pills of different color and shape [3]. Their Daniel Bar-Shalom University of Copenhagen Sanela Seric and Liv Dalsgaard Orkla Health Lasse Saaby Bioneer:Farma Karsten Kramer Vig Danish Technological Institute Gerner Hansen AgroTech Pablo Gustavo Vinicoff Hvidovre University Hospital conclusion: Different colors and shapes—coupled with the expectations about their effect—probably play an impor- tant role in terms of people's subsequent experience: "The diamond shape was also expected to be more alerting and more effective for headaches as compared to the oval-shaped tablets, but also harder to swallow and more bitter. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this would sug- gest there is no one colour or shape that is best for pills in general; the colour/shape of a pill should presumably therefore be chosen depending upon what needs to be emphasised (and the identified concerns of the target consumers). Fleshing this point out, if the patients/con- sumers had reported difficulty in swallowing, it would perhaps be inadvisable to use diamond-shaped tablets in order to enhance expected efficacy, as this shape may also promote an expectation that such shaped tablets would be difficult to swallow." The study that we conducted for and in collaboration with Orkla Health, which we summarize here, did not address the needs of people unable or reluctant to swallow tablets, a condition known as dysphagia. Furthermore, the tablets were vitamins and minerals, not pharmaceuticals. Still, the tablets had to be swallowable and should convey "perceived efficiency" to the consumer. How well people accept foods—or in this case tablets— depends on their integrating numerous sensory factors, including color, flavor, texture, density, consistency, size, and shape. All are important, but their impact varies with the context. Peanuts, for example, are chewed before they're swallowed while watermelon seeds are not. Indeed, over the ages, many seeds evolved in a way that allowed animals, including humans, to swallow them without qualms. It was this difference, drawn from nature, that inspired the earlier article [1]. In the present work, the target mass was 1,075 mil- ligrams to compare with an existing product. With an almond as inspiration and in close dialogue with a tablet tooling manufacturer (Elizabeth, McKeesport, PA), the tablet's shape was finalized (Figure 1). Dubbed the "almond Tablets & Capsules January 2016 35