Sensory Factors Influencing Healthy Food Choices

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Sensory Factors Influencing Healthy Food
Choices Patrick A. Morrissey, Conor M. Delahunty
Caroline A. Martin Department of Food and
Nutritional Sciences, University College, Cork,
Ireland
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The concepts of food
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The food needs of consumers

• Nutritional well-being is essential at every
  stage of life
• Nutritional requirements change across the
  lifespan
• Food preferences and food intake also change.
• Malnutrition, manifest in under-eating,
  over-eating, or insufficient nutrient intake is
  widespread among almost all age groups, or life
  stages.
• In addition, increasing need for new functionally
  enhanced foods to complement existing diet

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Factors influencing food choice and acceptability

• Genotype, physiology and age
• Eating habits and past food experience
• Cultural, social and economic demographics
• Attitudes and beliefs
• Personality
• Health and nutritional status
• Etc.

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Role of the senses

• Function as gatekeepers to our body
• Evaluate and distinguish the foods that are
  acceptable for consumption from those that should
  be rejected
• The senses have evolved to aid decision processes
• Play an important role in food liking and intake
• Subtle differences in taste and smell influence
  preferences
• The decision on what is good to eat? is
  individual

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Preference response to sensory characteristics
Delahunty, 2003
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The consumers decision
When the entire product has been consumed, the
consumer will pass judgement

• The seed for repeat purchase will be planted in
  memory
• The product will be simply forgotten
• The product will be actively avoided

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Sensitivity to smell

• The stimuli for smell are airborne compounds of
  volatile substances
• Odour stimulating compounds create perceptions
  endowed with distinctive smells
• The olfactory system responds to odour (sensed
  orthonasally) and aroma (sensed retronasally)
• The main contribution to the diversity of food
  flavour comes from volatiles released during
  consumption

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Sensitivity to smell

• The olfactory system is anatomically complete at
  birth
• Newborns can smell and can discriminate between
  different odours
• Infants learn to develop preferences that are in
  keeping with their peers
• Older adults loose smell ability
• They have higher absolute odour thresholds, less
  ability to perceive differences between
  suprathreshold odour intensity levels, and
  decreased ability to identify odours

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Sensitivity to taste

• The process begins in the oral cavity
• Receptors stimulated by contact with liquid
  compounds
• Newborn infants can discriminate between basic
  tastes. They like sweet and dislike sour and
  bitter
• They are indifferent to salty taste probably
  insensitive
• Preference for salt emerges at about 4 months

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Sensitivity to taste

• Innate taste preferences remain strong
  through-out the lifetime, but may be modified by
  experience
• In older age, taste sensitivity remains
  relatively intact, although there may be problems
  with quality identification
• Thresholds for salt and bitter taste may
  increase, whereas sweet and sour thresholds show
  little change
• Loss in ability to sense saltiness can create
  problems in healthy hypertensive populations

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Chemical irritation perception

• Chemesthesis is the term used to describe the
  detection of chemical irritants
• Involves the 5th cranial nerve, or trigeminal
  nerve of the face
• Detection takes place primarily in the eyes, nose
  and mouth
• Primary function of chemesthesis is to protect
  the body from noxious chemical stimuli
• This high influence sense is exploited
  commercially

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Chemical irritation perception

• Trigeminal sensations refer to the fizzy tingle
  from CO2, burn from hot pepper, pungency from
  mustard, bite from raw onions etc.
• Many common odour and flavour compounds also have
  trigeminal activity many odours can be detected
  by anosmics
• Trigeminal sensations contribute much to the
  sensory balance and overall appeal of foods and
  beverages
• Little evidence is available on ability to
  perceive trigeminal stimulation at different ages

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Texture perception and performance

• Texture perceived by senses of sight, tough and
  sound
• Sensations of texture based on sensations
  perceived when food is manipulated in the mouth
  (bitten, chewed, swallowed)
• Sense organs involved grouped as follows
• Those in superficial structures of mouth
• Those around roots of teeth
• Those in muscles and tendons

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Texture perception and performance

• Mouthfeel plays an essential part in the
  perception of textural properties of food
• Little information is available on changes of
  texture perception in the mouth with ageing
• Physiological changes in the mouth influence
  abilty to breakdown food without difficulty or
  pain

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Memory

• Memory is implicated in many forms and ways
  preferences, aversions, meal patterns, meal
  satisfaction
• Implicit memory is the basis of unconcious
  expectations
• Memory may be a bridge to the past and as such
  determine the authenticity of the taste
• Age related changes in memory can influence
  recall of past experiences with food
• Age related changes in memory can also influence
  sensory discrimination capacity

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The food needs of older consumers

• Nutritional well-being is essential to achieve
  successful ageing and ensure older adults
  independence and quality of life
• Sub-clinical intakes of energy, calcium, vitamin
  D, vitamin B6, folate and zinc are common
• Low energy intake is most prevalent, and this
  impairs an individuals ability to meet
  requirements for essential nutrients
• Older consumers are encouraged to consume a
  nutritionally balanced, nutrient dense diet
  containing a variety of foods in moderation
• Increasing need for new functionally enhanced
  foods to complement existing diet

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The food needs of older consumers

• Elderly consumers have reduced sensitivity to
  odour and mouthfeel
• Ageing alters saliva flow and composition
• This affects ability to breakdown food, inhibits
  mixing, retards flavour release and makes
  swallowing difficult
• Older people loose interest in food and food
  related activities
• The motivation to seek variety in the diet may be
  reduced
• Leads to consumption of a monotonous diet,
  reduced energy intake and deficiency in essential
  nutrients

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Technological challenges

• The consumer demands many new products with
  functional ingredients
• The consumer demands products with reduced fat,
  salt and sugar
• Each change is a move away from traditional
  technologies
• Requires new technologies to mask off-flavour, to
  re-introduce lost flavour, or to rebuild texture
• The consumer will seek familiarity in sensory
  properties and will not be satisfied with
  alternatives

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The contribution of the senses to healthy food
choice and intake

• How does society, and the food industry,
  currently contribute to incorrect dietary habits
  and dietary guidance strategy through a lack of
  understanding of changing sensory function and
  its significance in regulating optimum dietary
  intake?
• Seek knowledge of how sensitivity and hedonic
  response change across the lifespan
• Determine relationships between these factors and
  eating behaviour that can be exploited in
  age-appropriate new product development
• Restrict tastes that cause indulgence and promote
  tastes that signal nutritive value

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Healthy Ageing How Changes in Sensory
Physiology, Sensory Psychology and
Socio-Cognitive Factors Influence Food Choice
(QLKI-CT-1999-00010)

• To generate scientific data on the relationship
  between sensory physiology and food preferences
• To study degradation of sensory capability in the
  ageing and determine how this affects their food
  preferences and general well-being
• To understand how older people deal with issues
  related to food and choice
• To publish the results in a format to be used by
  makers, food industry and consumer organisations
  that support the elderly

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HealthSense Project Structure 24 Research
Partners, 8 Workpackages
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Sensory ability and age Taste identification
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Sensory ability and age
Oral Stereognosis
Masticatory function
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Texture preferences of older consumers
Difficult textures for older consumers
Easy textures for the older consumers
Liking and eating difficulties are not always
correlated
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Effect of eating environment
P lt0.001
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Factors influencing food choice across EU states
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Recommendations for the future

• It is time to understand better the development
  of food preferences with positive nutrition in
  mind and to exploit sensory properties to
  increase intake of foods with high nutritive
  value that promote long term health and
  well-being
• Develop dietary strategies that take account of
  the sensory properties of food. Unacceptable
  tastes that do not match individual likes or
  expectations, are an obstacle to compliance with
  a recommended change in diet
• The hedonics of taste are arguably malleable
  through experience. Hedonic response to the
  tastes of beneficial foods, and those that
  should be avoided, needs to be adjusted
• Food habits are learned, but are also determined
  by genotype. With an understanding of this
  relationship, food habits can be changed to
  enable nutritional well-being and improved health

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The EU 6th Framework Programme

• Food acceptability, leading to intake, and
  desired nutritional benefit is determined by an
  integrated response to signals from biological,
  physiological, sociological, cultural and
  economic factors.
• These factors determine initial eating habits
  from birth, and continued eating habits
  through-out life.
• There is a chain of influence from GENE TO INTAKE
• There is very important need to integrate
  research in each of the areas identified as
  factors determining intake, so that the
  development of eating habits, and ability to
  change eating habits, can be understood.
• The EU 6th framework, via the integrated project
  instruments, provides the platform for this
  important research integration.
• However, the current EU 6th Framework work
  programme has ommitted this entire area of
  research.
• It is most important that a future call for
  integrated projects, will call for a project
  specifically in the area of Determinants of food
  intake

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