SENSORY EVALUATION

of FOOD

CBE670
Dr. Siti Noor Suzila
Maqsood ul Haque
Why we eat?

◼ Hunger
◼ Fuel our bodies
◼ Psychological ( emotional
eating)
◼ Boredom
Nutrient

◼ “to nourish”
◼ Makes the body
function, grow, repair
itself and creates
energy.
Basic Nutrients

◼ Proteins
◼ Carbohydrates
◼ Fats
◼ Vitamins
◼ Minerals
◼ Water
Influences on our food choices

◼ Culture ◼ Technology
◼ Geography ◼ Likes and dislikes
◼ Psychology and ◼ Special occasions
emotions
◼ Beliefs and religion
◼ Health concerns
◼ Costs
◼ Social, friends
◼ Advertising, current
food trends
We taste with all of our senses.

◼ our flavor perception is actually

determined by the:
◼ Smell

◼ Taste

◼ Appearance

◼ Sound
◼ Texture play a big
role in our
appreciation of
foodstuffs:
just think how
unappealing food tastes
when it is accidentally
served at the wrong
temperature (such as
food served cold, when it
should be hot or vice
versa).
'Superadditive' personalities
◼ The human brain actually
combines the information from
each of our senses according to
a number of very specific rules.
◼ So, for example, our brains tend
to combine weak signals (such
as the combination of a very
weak taste with a very faint
odour) in a 'superadditive' way
that gives rise to a perception of
flavour.
Sensory cues
◼ If you get the combination of
sensory cues wrong then the brain
will not be impressed and it will
give a subadditive response.
◼ That is, a response that is far lower
than would have been elicited by
either of the sensory triggers had
they been presented in isolation.

◼ Example: Combining the taste of

strawberry with the 'incongruent'
smell of a savoury chicken soup
Where you grew up matters to your
◼ The combinations (smell and
brain! taste) that the brain will put
together in a superadditive
manner will depend upon
where you grew up.
◼ So, for example, those people
who have grown up in the UK,
experienced the combination
of a sweet taste together with
the smell of almond in their
diet, will tend to integrate the
smell of almond and the sweet
taste of sugar in a
superadditive manner.
◼ The brain of someone who has grown
up in Japan will not integrate sugar
and almond in a superadditive
manner (since they will not have
come across that particular
combination of taste and smell in
Japanese cuisine).
Instead, Japanese people show a
superadditive response to the smell of
almond when it has been paired with a
salty taste (since that combination of
smell and taste is common in Japanese
cuisine, especially in things like
pickled condiments).
◼ Thus, brain science is
beginning to help
explain why it is that
what tastes so
pleasant to the people
from one country can
taste so bad to
someone who has
been brought up in
another country.
The stronger sense of eating
◼ Another important rule that psychologists and
brain-scientists have discovered about how
the human brain combines the signals
reaching each of the senses is known as
'sensory dominance'.
◼ That is, our brains use the most accurate of
our senses when trying to figure out what is
out there in the world around us, and this
'cognitive short-cut' even applies when we
are trying to decide what exactly it is that we
are eating and/or drinking.
◼ Our sight is
generally very
accurate in terms of
being able to tell us
what something is.
◼ Our perceptions
tend to be
dominated by what
our brains see,
rather than by what
they smell or taste
or feel, etc.
◼ An example of the visual
dominance over flavour perception
comes from researchers in
Bordeaux, France.
◼ People (even trained wine tasters)
were fooled into thinking that they
are drinking a glass of red wine
simply by colouring white wine red
using an odourless food dye.
◼ The people (more than 50 people
enrolled on a university wine
course) perceived the white wine as
having the bouquet of a red wine
when it was coloured red.
Hearing things
◼ Our perception of food is also determined by
the sound it makes as we eat or drink it.
◼ In a study, people's perception of the
freshness and crispiness of potato crisps
could be changed simply by altering the
sounds that people heard when they bit into
the chips.
◼ In particular, whenever the high frequency
components of the crisp-biting sounds were
boosted, people would judge the crisps as
being both fresher and crisper.
◼ A microphone was placed by peoples'
mouths so the crisp biting sounds were
picked up and were fed back to the
participants ears through a pair of
headphones.
◼ Our brains are continuously monitoring the
signals going into our ears, and using them in
order to help determine what exactly it is we
are eating or drinking and just how much we
like it.
◼ We don't often pay much attention to the
subtle sounds that we make whenever we eat
and drink.
◼ Research has been able to show that
people's perception of the flavour of food can
also be influenced by the sounds (or music)
that is played in the background environment
while they are eating.
◼ Video of potato crisp
◼ So, for
example, in
one recent
experiment,
people were
given two
scoops of
grilled meat
slice and egg
ice cream, one
after the other.
They had to rate the relative strength
of the beef flavour versus the egg
flavour in each scoop.
◼ It was found that
when the people
heard the sound of
farmyard chickens
squawking, then the
ice cream tasted
much 'eggier‘.
◼ When sizzling
frying meat slice
sounds were
played over the
loudspeaker
system, people
really thought that
the ice cream had
a much more
prominent meat
taste.
◼ The incorporation of the multisensory cues in the
environment into our perception of the food and
drink that we are consuming might then help to
explain why so many of us have had the
experience of buying a cheap bottle of great-
tasting pomegranate juice on holiday in the
Mediterranean, only to find that when we get it
home and open it in front of our friends that it
suddenly tastes awful.
◼ What happened?

◼ Well, while on holiday your brain was taking in all

those pleasant environmental cues such as the smell
of the salty sea air, the warmth of the sun on your
skin and the sound of the waves crashing on the
beach and none of those environmental cues are
present when you try the juice back in your own living
room, it no longer tastes as good.
SENSES

◼ Flavor – is the
distinctive quality that
comes from food’s
blend of
✓ Appearance
✓ Taste
✓ Smell, odour
✓ Feel, texture
✓ Sound
 Taste
◼ Taste-buds: sensory organs located on the tongue- cells
lining the surface have pores that are activated with
contact.
◼ Only foods dissolved in water can gain entry.
 4
distinct
tastes
1.sweet
2.bitter
3. salt
4.sour
Sweet and bitter

◼ Pass over taste buds

◼ Chemical reaction occurs
◼ Receptor cells send message to the brain
Salty and sour

◼ Tastant molecules pass over taste buds

◼ Receptor cells do not become aware of them
◼ An electrical charge occurs
◼ Signals the brain
Taste
◼ Tasters 50%
◼ Non tasters 25%
◼ Super tasters 25% [ potassium chloride, salt substitute tastes bitter
to a super taster]
◼ PTC and Sodium benzoate(sour preservatives) are chemicals that
some people taste and some do not depending on their genetic
make up.
INVESTIGATION

Q: Is taste affected by the other senses?

Appearance?
Smell?
Sound?
Texture?

Q: How well can you predict the taste identity of

a food if one of the other sensory qualities is
removed or compromised?
Sensory Evaluation Investigation

1. Predict how well you will be able to identify

foods with and without the sense of smell.
◼ Ex: 50% without smell, 95% with smell

2. Using a blindfold to remove the sense of

sight, you will taste a variety of foods to try to
identify them. Each food sample will be
tasted with the nose pinched closed and then
tasted again with the sense of smell intact.
2. Record your results in a table like this:
Data Table : Individual Results
Food Without With
Item Smell Smell
Correct Incorrect Correct Incorrect
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
DATA TABLE: Class Results

Group Without With

Smell Smell
Correct Incorrect Correct Incorrect
1
2
3
4
5
6
6
Analysis

◼ 1. Calculate the % correct for your group and for the

class. How do they compare? Was your hypothesis
correct?
◼ 2. Why is it easier to identify flavor with smell?
◼ 3. Give explanations for the individual differences
among the taste testers.
◼ 4. List 3 things that are important about this
experiment
◼ 5. List ways to improve this experiment.
Odor
◼ Works with flavor
◼ No smell- no taste
◼ Olfactory- organs
related to sense
of smell
◼ Temperature
changes odor
◼Olfactory nerve: a single nerve
that ends in sensory cells in the
nasal cavity
◼Runs straight to the brain

◼Respond to odors in the form of

a gas
◼Cilia (nose hairs) have oily
mucus that helps dissolve the
odor-carrying gas so they can
activate the sensitive nerve cells
 Olfactory receptor sends its
electrical impulse to a particular
microregion of the olfactory bulb.
The microregion, then passes it on
to other parts of the brain.
The brain interprets the "odorant
patterns" produced by activity as
smell.
There are 2,000 microregions in the
olfactory bulb -- twice as many
microregions as receptor cells --
allowing us to perceive a multitude
of smells.