Trends in food sensory science

Abstract

Food Science and TechnologyVolume 35, Issue 4 p. 46-50 FeaturesFree Access Trends in food sensory science First published: 04 December 2021 https://doi.org/10.1002/fsat.3504_13.xAboutSectionsPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Sarah E Kemp, Isabella Nyambayo, Lauren Rogers, Tracey Sanderson and Casiana Blanca Villarino describe the fast pace of change in the use of sensory science to evaluate consumer responses to food and beverage products, packaging and brands. Consumers are confronted by a myriad of food and beverage choices. Their experience of a product from purchase through preparation to consumption must delight them, otherwise they will not buy it again. Food sensory science was developed to improve competitive advantage in industrial food production using accurate and reliable measurement of sensory characteristics to design well-liked products. It is now a multi-disciplinary field investigating how people perceive and respond to foods and beverages in a variety of settings. It employs many sciences, including physiology, psychology, behavioural science, neuroscience and statistics, to investigate qualitative, quantitative, temporal and hedonic sensory dimensions. Since our last review of trends in food science in 20151, many of the sensory science trends discussed have shifted focus or moved on significantly, including health and wellness, sustainability, neuroscience and improved methodology. Sensory science continues to embrace new technology, having moved from analogue to digitised and now to digital, with the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and social networking, as well as the push to make online life a multi-sensory experience. The biggest recent event to affect sensory science is the COVID-19 global pandemic, which has dramatically shifted consumer attitudes and behaviours, detrimentally affected some people's senses of smell and taste, and necessitated different sensory testing methodologies. These important and wide ranging changes were addressed in the September 2021 edition of Food Science and Technology2. Health and wellness Due to rising adult obesity rates and cardiovascular diseases in the UK combined with global warming, consumers and the food sector are seeking alternatives to improve health and to protect animal welfare and the environment3. Reduced and alternative fat, salt, sugar and protein products have created a niche market in the food sector4. Ingredients used as flavour replacements, including unsaturated fats, monosodium glutamate, maple syrup, honey, artificial sweeteners, etc., and protein alternatives, such as plant-based meats and edible insects, influence consumer sensory perception and acceptability of these food products. Functional ingredients can be used to replicate mouthfeel, flavour, texture and appearance. Simulation of sensory characteristics of animal-based products tends to be difficult. Whilst consumers are increasing their consumption and acceptance of meat substitute foods5, the use of additives to simulate meat-like sensory profiles has posed concerns about food safety, clean label, nutrition and consumer confidence. Plant-based meat alternatives are perceived as having improved nutrition and health benefits. However, the vigorous processing of plant-based alternatives inevitably results in nutrient loss. There are no reports on biological efficacy of added inorganic minerals that are equivalent to haem, zinc and selenium organically present in meat products. Plant-based meat alternative products contain more salt than the meats they are designed to replace, thereby failing to improve health by reducing sodium content4. There are few nutritional studies to support the health benefits of plant-based alternatives. Wellbeing is gaining prominence and increasing focus is being put on investigating actives (such as immunity enhancing actives and the pain and stress relieving actives found in hemp and CBD) and the sensory properties of products and strains of plants containing actives. Sustainability The impact of food production on the environment is moving to the fore with consumers demanding ethically and sustainably produced products, whilst expecting an excellent sensory experience. Foods from sustainable sources with acceptable sensory impact are being developed. Food waste is being reduced with measures such as retailing imperfect produce and upcycling food by-products discarded during processing, e.g. coffee alternative made from cherry stone pulp and beer from surplus bread. The sensory impact of sustainable packaging continues to be important, with the reduction of single use plastic, the use of more environmentally friendly materials, e.g. bottles made of recycled cardboard (p33), dissolvable films and other edible packing made from materials such as tapioca, seaweed and potato. Proposals to reduce food-related energy consumption, for example increasing freezing temperatures from -18°C to -15°C, may not affect food safety but may influence sensory quality. A better online reality will also impact sustainability, with remote work, healthcare and education reducing travel. Sensory research itself uses resources and consideration needs to be given to sustainable testing6. The sensory impact of sustainable packaging continues to be important, with the reduction of single use plastic, the use of more environmentally friendly materials, e.g. bottles made of recycled cardboard, dissolvable films and other edible packing made from materials such as tapioca, seaweed and potato. Developments in technology Consumers are increasingly living their lives online. To date the internet has primarily engaged with sight and sound. Touch is becoming more important as user interfaces on phones, gaming devices, etc. produce increasingly sophisticated haptic effects, such as vibrational feedback and gesture detection (swipes, taps and clicks). Work continues on digitising taste and smell with early developments including headset accessories with aroma generators. Augmented and virtual reality (AR, VR) are becoming mainstream thanks to VR headsets, AR glasses and AR mirrors to preview hairstyles, make up and clothes. The ultimate goal is to provide multi-sensory, true-to-life, immersive online experiences – the Internet of Senses7. Imagine attending a virtual dinner party or virtually tasting a new food product. Smart and wireless technology is changing the way consumers interact with the world around them. Sensory science is helping to develop this technology and is also applying it in testing, for example, using smart speaker technology to collect data in contexts when other methods are difficult to use, such as when hands are busy or wet, or equipping supermarket shopping carts with radio-frequency identification to transmit precise consumer location and purchase history. Food product innovation continues to develop structured processes to carry out online open innovation directly in partnership with consumers using social networking, with crowd-sourcing of new food products, ingredients, menus, brands and advertising providing engagement. AI is a fast-growing area and its impact on sensory science has already been marked. The use of machine learning to mine historical sensory datasets has increased, building companies’ knowledge of their consumers. Text analytics is also proving highly beneficial to sensory scientists to summarise and analyse text from sensory studies and, when used in conjunction with sentiment analysis (a computational method of distilling the opinions in a piece of text), can be used to quickly analyse free text from consumers. Multisensory emotional and experiential marketing of food Emotional marketing of food products requires sensory properties to relate to the emotional aspects of the product, the usage experience including packaging and the brand, so that foods are designed with the required emotional benefits. Experiential marketing takes this a step further and creates a deeper connection through stronger associations with consumers’ emotions and memories. Examples include multisensory foods designed to stimulate all the senses, multisensory eating environments, such as experiential restaurants, and sensory retailing that creates an atmosphere with a positive subconscious effect on consumers. Neuroscience Neuroscience techniques continue to gain application within consumer research. These techniques tap into fast, instinctive and sub-conscious neural processing and outputs are believed by some to be more representative of real-life decision making at point of purchase than explicit methods. The developing field of neuromarketing studies the brain to gain insights into consumers’ motivations, preferences and decisions to predict and potentially even manipulate consumer behaviour and decision making8. This can help inform product development, pricing, advertising, retailing, etc. Some studies suggest neuromarketing techniques can predict the future success of products more accurately than traditional market research tools. Some of the techniques currently being adopted for researching consumer responses are listed in Table 1. Table 1. Neuroscience techniques used in marketing TECHNIQUE MEASUREMENT LEARNING Neuroimaging: Functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI) Electroencephalography (EEG) Electrical brain activity Changes in blood flow due to neural activity Electrical signals on the scalp from neural activity Tracks level of engagement and excitement, emotional responses and recall Eye tracking: Gaze Pupillometry Records and analyzes visual behaviour Eye movement, including where a consumer is looking, what they are looking at and for how long Pupil dilation Presence, attention and focus of consumer. Identifies elements that attract immediate attention and more/less attention. Tracks order of attention. Physiological tracking Galvanic skin response, heart rate, respiration Level of physiological arousal, which is an indicator of positive or negative emotional response Facial expressions: Facial coding Facial electromyography (fEMG) Emotional coding of facial expression Facial coding of visible facial expressions Facial muscle activity Emotional response, including type and intensity of emotion Voice tone coding Emotional coding of tone of voice Emotional response, positive or negative response and arousal. Action-based implicit tests, including: Implicit Association Testing (IAT) Priming tasks (Affective Priming Task (APT), Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP), Semantic Priming Approach Avoidance Testing (AAT) Implicit behavioural measures Reaction times to categorise stimuli/concepts to determine associative strengths Response to a stimuli following exposure to a primer to determine associative strengths Response times and distance for behaviour towards a positive stimulus or away from a negative stimulus Identifies unconscious attitudes and beliefs that consumers are unable or unwilling to report Consumer segmentation based on genetics can guide policy makers and food manufacturers in providing foods which are both ‘nutritionally and palatably fit’ for a specific market. The cost of the brain scanning techniques is prohibitive to most companies at the current time, but the development of a portable, affordable fMRI could change this. Role of genetics in taste and sensory evaluation Studies have shown that our genes highly impact taste perception and food preferences. Some variants of the genes responsible for bitter taste detection can influence bitter and sweet taste preference and fat responsiveness. These genes are also responsible for separating non-tasters and tasters and the differences in their food preferences can influence their nutritional and health status. This segregation of ‘taster status’ offers opportunities in the area of personalised nutrition. This is often based on medical considerations while disregarding individual genetic make-up, which can affect liking or disliking of foods. There is a need to take a closer look at individual food preference to understand possibilities for redesigning these products or diets. Consumer segmentation based on genetics can guide policy makers and food manufacturers in providing foods that are both ‘nutritionally and palatably fit’ for a specific market. Substantiation of claims Sensory claims are statements made on packaging, in advertisements or product documentation that inform the consumer about the product characteristics. Claims can be made for all types of products, including cosmetics, electronic devices and food. Earlier this year an international standard was published: Sensory analysis – Guidance on substantiation for sensory and consumer product claims (ISO 20784:2021) to help the increasing number of companies looking to use sensory claims in a bid to make their products stand out in a competitive, growing and constantly changing marketplace. Sensory claims were originally used for cosmetics, personal care and cleaning products, but food manufacturers are now seeing the positive impact these claims can have on sales. A quick trip down a supermarket aisle will demonstrate some excellent sensory claims: ‘yes it's a truly delicious pizza with a crispy spinach base’; ‘the original and best’; ‘rich and creamy’; ‘improved recipe’. Demand for more agile and faster approaches to support NPD (new product development) is driving the development of sensory qualitative techniques that use screened consumers to create product design guidelines and give feedback on the fit of ensuing prototypes. Trends in sensory and consumer testing The impact of context on consumer and hedonic responses has been the subject of extensive research using virtual reality, immersive environments and real restaurants and bars9. The COVID-19 pandemic moved most consumer testing and much sensory panel testing in-home, sparking additional questions around context, such as what impact does time of day, day of week, location or even number of samples, have on the absolute hedonic response and ability of consumers to discriminate10. Traditional sensory and consumer methods can be time consuming and out of step with fast moving innovation pipelines, although they provide detailed information. Demand for more agile and faster approaches to support NPD (new product development) is driving the development of sensory qualitative techniques that use screened consumers to create product design guidelines and give feedback on the fit of ensuing prototypes. Similarly, ‘ready to go’ consumer communities are being used for quick turnaround insight on concepts and development samples. These rapid, fluid approaches can lead to a tension with the more traditional and scientific aspects of a subject that has formally relied on replicated measures and trained assessors. The skilled sensory scientist must now be able to risk assess, guide, advise stakeholders and remove bias from these more agile procedures. In contrast, within more objective sensory analysis, there is increasing demand for absolute scaling and spectrum profiling. This is not only in response to globalisation of companies and the need to compare products across panels and markets, but also to the efficiencies emerging from developments in big data that permit merging and mining historical data sets. ‘Big data’ is the buzz word given to large amounts of data collected from the internet used in social media market research, which allows a large audience to be monitored in real time and provides a passive measure of immediate and past consumer behaviour. Advantages include low cost, ease of data collection and greater statistical resolution, enabling fine details, e.g. small target groups, to be described with statistical validity. Challenges include measurement errors, statistical data integration and representativeness, for example, the silent majority is difficult to observe; sensory-related words may be difficult to interpret, etc. Social media market research techniques are quantitative and qualitative (e.g. social listening enabling learning through online interaction and observation without a market research facilitator). They are best used in conjunction with traditional research methods, as they tell us what consumer behaviour is happening, whereas traditional methods tell us why. As markets become more crowded, sensory science is increasingly used to differentiate products and packaging, be that via definition of brand sensory signature, or via exploitation of the relationship between sensory perception, emotional experience and brand values. New methods in this area continue to be developed, such as Temporal Dominance of Emotions11 (TDE), an extension of Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS), which describes dynamic dominance of emotions during product consumption. Conclusions Food sensory science will continue to help provide a healthy and sustainable food supply. Its application in the food industry is adapting to use a mix of traditional methods and newer, rapid, high-tech methods, in lab, online and in context, for innovative, competitive, consumer-lead product design with sensory and emotional integration of responses to product, packaging and branding. It continues to broaden its remit to help develop technology that incorporates all five senses so that online and virtual food-related experiences are as authentic as possible. Co-ordinator: Dr Sarah E Kemp, Sarah Kemp Consultancy Sarah is a consultant with extensive international experience in academia and industry. She is a Chartered Scientist, Registered Sensory Scientist, IFST Fellow, Past Chair and examiner for the IFST SSG and Chair of the BSI Committee AW/012 Sensory Analysis. email [email protected] telephone 01843 579622 Co-authors: Prof Isabella Nyambayo, Coventry University Lauren Rogers, freelance sensory scientist Tracey Sanderson, Sensory Dimensions Ltd Prof Casiana Blanca Villarino, University of the Philippines References 1Kemp, S., Hort, J. 2015. Trends in food sensory science. Food Science & Technology 29: 36- 39 2Kemp, S.E., Nyambayo, I., Rogers, L., Sanderson, T., Villarino, B. 2021. Consumer reactions to COVID-19. Food Science & Technology 35: 22- 25 3Godfray, H.C.J. 2019. Meat: The future series – alternative proteins. Geneva, Switzerland: World Economic Forum. Available from: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_White_Paper_Alternative_Proteins.pdf (accessed 1 June 2021) 4Sha, L., Xiong, Y.L. 2020. Plant protein based alternatives of reconstructed meat: science, technology, and challenges. Trends in Food Science and Technology 102: 51– 61. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924224420304830 () 5Weinrich, R. 2019. Opportunities for the adoption of health-based sustainable dietary patterns: A review on consumer research of meat substitutes. Sustainability 11: 4028- 4043. Available from: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/15/4028/htm () 6European Sensory Network. 2020. Waste in Sensory and Consumer Testing Survey. Presented at a European Sensory Network Webinar on 17 November 2020. 7 Ericsson Consumer Lab. 2019. 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2030. Available from: https//:ericsson.com/ae13b/assets/local/reports-papers/consumerlab/reports/2019/10hctreport2030.pdf (accessed 1 June 2021) 8Harrell, E. 2019. Neuromarketing: what you need to know. Harvard Business Review. Available from: https://hbr.org/2019/01/neuromarketing-what-you-need-to-know (accessed 1 June 2021) 9ESN. 2018. Impact of immersion level on capturing consumer reality. A European Sensory Network Funded Research. Available at: European Sensory Network - Your partner for sensory & consumer research: Videos (esn-network.com) 10Hails, S. 2021 (in press). Product testing at home. The new normal? Uncovering unexpected sources of bias within our consumer data and how to manage it. See Home - Sensory Dimensions 11Jager, G., Schlich, P., Tijssen, I., Yao, J., Visalli, M., de Graaf, C. et al. 2014. Temporal dominance of emotions: measuring dynamics of food-related emotions during consumption. Food Quality and Preference 37: 87- 99. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0950329314000676?via%3Dihub () Volume35, Issue4December 2021Pages 46-50 ReferencesRelatedInformation