Sensory study can help enhance in-flight menu

HOSPITAL food and airline packed meals are not among one’s list of tasty foods. In all fairness, it may not always be about the food, but one’s sense of taste being altered physiologically.

In the case of in-flight meals, Cornell University scientists say the unusual environment – a typical pressurized cabin and 85-decibel humming engine noise – can impact the senses, particularly affecting the transmission of taste impulses from the taste buds to the brain. Stimuli such as noise can affect the relay of the message which passes through the auditory senses.

Using a cabin simulator in the sensory tests, food scientists Robin Dando and Kimberly Yan learned two important things about flavor: Umami-rich foods taste better in a noisy environment. Umami is the sweet, savory taste of amino acids such as glutamate in foods like tomato juice. Second, the same environment can weaken one’s taste for sweetness. This discovery can pave the way for improving in-flight menu.

“Our study confirmed that in an environment of loud noise, our sense of taste is compromised. Interestingly, this was specific to sweet and umami tastes, with sweet taste inhibited and umami taste significantly enhanced,” said Robin Dando, assistant professor of food science. “The multisensory properties of the environment where we consume our food can alter our perception of the foods we eat.”

The German airline Lufthansa, which has commissioned a similar study, agreed and said that passengers were consuming as much tomato juice as beer.

Taste perception depends not only on the integration of several sensory inputs associated with the food or drink itself, but also on the sensory attributes of the environment in which the food is consumed, the scientists said.

“The multisensory nature of what we consider ‘flavor’ is undoubtedly underpinned by complex central and peripheral interactions,” said Mr Dando. “Our results characterize a novel sensory interaction, with intriguing implications for the effect of the environment in which we consume food.”

The study “A Crossmodal Role for Audition in Taste Perception” authored by Mr Dando and Ms Yan is available in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.