“Why One Person’s Taste Bliss is Another Person’s Poison"

1. “Why One Person’s Taste Bliss is Another Person’s Poison" Prof. Tony Blake

2. “How Human Beings Learn to Like the Flavours of Foods and Drinks" Prof. Tony Blake

3. …..of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. ....but in spite of this warning Eve was typically human.

4. Humans are the only animals which cook and process the foods they find………… …...and in this way create new flavors which never existed before in Nature.

5. Humans eat the foods which they have created through their methods of cooking and cuisine. The flavors of these foods are dependent on the cooking processes used and are consequently man made. In human history there have been continual changes in food and flavor preferences

8. The Evolving Scientific Base of the Flavor Industry 19th Century20th Century21st Century Solvent Extraction Molecular Separation Physical Chemistry Steam Distillation Identification Biochemistry Fractional Distillation Synthetic Organic Chemistry Human Physiology

9. For most of the 20th Century the focus of the Flavor Industry was the identification of those molecules which give odor and taste to food and drinks

10. New analytical techniques allowed these molecules to be identified at lower levels and with increasing precision 1950 to 1990

11. H O O O

13. O O S S

17. Flavor Authenticity depends: • not only on having the correct molecules • but also an appropriate delivery system • and the correct dynamics of delivery

18. In 1990 Firmenich purchased the Californian company MCPThey had an enviable reputation in organic chemistry but lacked the science base for understanding the new products acquired with this acquisition

19. A Case Study in Flavor Release

20. Control of flavor release was an important marketing claim but one which couldn’t be quantified in the most important situation….

21. ….during the eating of food.

22. In 1996 at the University of Nottingham Prof. Andy Taylor and Dr. Rob Linforth developed a technique for real-time, in vivo analysis of flavor release from food and this allowed a new understanding of flavor dynamics and the effects which food structure and composition have on its perception.

24. AROMA sweet salty umami sour bitter PROFILE

25. 120 120 100 100 80 80 Normalised sucrose and menthone release 60 60 Perceived Intensity Sucrose Release Menthone Release 40 40 Time-Intensity 20 20 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Time (min) Courtesy of J. Davidson & A J Taylor. The University of Nottingham

26. From Breslin et al Aroma-chology Review, vol. X n°2, pp14-17 (2002)

27. Almonds are not sweet

28. Mint leaves are bitter!

29. What do we taste each day that is minty and sweet? Our association of flavor and taste is learned.

30. What exactly is flavour ?

31. However, brains act in a holistic way...

32. … and we needed to get inside consumer’s heads

33. Magnetic Resonance Imaging

35. fMRI brain scans of people engaged in either hearing (blue) or silent lipreading (red). Common activity is shown yellow. From Calvert et al 1997.

37. Conscious Limbic Taste Olfaction Vision Touch Hearing Propriosense Learning and Cross Modal Connections

38. The most plausible way to explain the inter-sensory effects we had observed is to conclude that ‘flavour’ is in fact a construct of the brain…….

39. .. and it is a learned response

40. > 80% of the input data is from breath from the mouth passing over the olfactory bulb in the nose,but what we see, how it feels,how it tastes, what we hear andour pleasure and satisfaction will allinfluence the way we remember it.

41. Flavour is a multi-sensory memory….. …….which depends on our personal experiences of eating and drinking…...

42. Conscious Taste Vision Touch Olfaction Hearing Propriosense All our senses play a part in flavor perception

43. Flavor Processing: more than the sum of its parts. Small, D., Jones-Gotman, M., Zatorre, M.P. and Evans, A.C. NeuroReport 8, pp 3913-3917 (1997) Flavor processing is not represented by a simple convergence of its component senses….changes (seen with PET imaging) in the amygdala and basal forebrain suggest a role for these structures in processing novel or unpleasant stimuli.

44. Zampini, M. and C. Spence (2004 ). “The role of auditory cues in modulating the crispness and staleness in crisps.” Journal of Sensory Studies 19, 347-363.

46. Flavor is Nature’s way of letting food and drink communicate with us……it tells us whether we can swallow what is in our mouth or if we should spit it out.

47. …..and we start learning about flavor very early in our lives, several months before we are born.

49. This baby already has flavour preferences which started to develop seven months before it was born.

50. Electron micrograph showing the extent and complexity of connections between neurons in the human brain.