Scientists have answered one of the great unsolved problems of the age
- they have found the secret to the perfectly crunchy cornflake.
French boffins down in Nantes have looked at the the cornflake’s 'alveolar structure' (whatever the 'ell that is!) and have identified the factors affecting its crunchiness. They also used a 'pioneering mechanism' to test the acoustic performance of the 'crunch' and discovered the exact sound that gives the most satisfactory noise when eaten.
Comparing why the Argentine Plata corn stays flaky when most European varieties do not, they found that crunchiness depends not so much on the manufacturing method as on the 'alveolar structure', in particular the 'interface between proteins and starch'. Professional tasters decreed which flake made the most satisfying sounds in the mouth, and which went soggy in milk and stuck to their palates. Terrible things soggy cornflakes. Keeps me awake at night.











