Dysphagia refers to the difficulty in swallowing. An innovative approach to manage dysphagia is designing the rheological properties of foods and drinks. Non-Newtonian fluids have been highlighted as helpful for safe swallowing and it has also been pointed out that the elastic properties of the food may help improve the swallowing process. However, literature lacks any consistent set of results which relates the food elasticity to swallowing. In the present project we created three food grade model fluids with Newtonian (constant shear viscosity), Boger (constant shear viscosity and elastic) and shear thinning (shear rate dependent and elastic) behavior to elucidate the individual effects of elasticity and shear thinning.