Flavour Launch Seminar, 28th March 2012: An introduction to taste and flavour by Per Møller, University of Copenhagen and co-Editor-in-Chief, Flavour.

2. Flavour
Per Møller
University of Copenhagen
pem@life.ku.dk

3. Many senses important for perception
and appreciation of foods
• taste
• smell
• touch (haptic)
• trigeminality (pungency, irritation)
• vision
• audition
• temperature
• interoception
What is flavour?

4. Demonstration
• Chew and swallow a jelly-bean while you
block your nose. What does it ’taste’ like?
• Chew a jelly-bean with normal passage of
air through your nose. Any difference in
’taste’ from what you perceived above?

5. Dana Small et al:
fMRI experiments have demonstrated:
• Differential neural responses evoked by orthonasal vs. Retronasal
perception in humans, i.e. Neural recruitment is influenced by whether an
odorant represents a food
(Small et al. Neuron, Vol. 47, 593-605, 2005)
and further
• Separable substrates for anticipatory (i.e. sniffing the aroma) and
consummatory food chemosensation
(Small et al. Neuron, Vol 57, 786-797, 2008)

6. Benoist Schaal et al: Human foetuses learn
odours from their pregnant mother’s Diet
From Schaal et al: Chem. Senses 25: 729-
737, 2000

7. Trigeminal stimulants (strong
spices)
Two hypotheses
• Strong spices increase metabolism
(preliminary support for this hypothesis ~15%)
- appropriate concentrations ?
- other spices than chili ?
• Strong spices increase satiety
- smaller meals?
- is time between meals unaffected?

8. Influence of chilli on hunger and
satiety
Hunger-satiety for hot/ordinary soup
10
9
8
7
VASscores
6
5
4 satiety
(ordinary soup)
3 satiety (hot
soup)
2 hunger
(ordinary soup
1 hunger (hot
soup)
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 35 40 45 50 55
Time (min)
Reisfelt H. H., Møller P., unpublished

9. Does the ’hot’ soup taste worse?
Liking hot/ordinary soup
10
hot
9
ordinary
8
7
VAS-scores
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Tim e (m in)
Reisfelt H. H., Møller P. unpublished

10. Motivation to eat more
Wanting hot/ordinary soup
10 hot
9 ordinary
8
7
VAS-scores
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Tim e (m in)
Reisfelt H. H., Møller P. unpublished

11. Flavour – the journal
will:
publish interdisciplinary articles on flavour, its generation and perception, and
its influence on behaviour and nutrition as well as articles on the
psychophysical, psychological and chemical aspects of flavour including those
which take brain imaging approaches.
we expect papers ranging from:
philosophy, anthropology and economics
over
psychology and neuroscience
to
physics and chemistry.
we hope:
to make Flavour a journal not only for scientists, but also accessible to
chefs and other food professionals who would not normally read the
scientific literature.

12. Some scientific challenges for Flavour
• What are the fundamental mechanisms by which we gain pleasure from the flavour of
what we eat?
• Are there any relationships between the pleasure derived from eating and satiation?
• Can one transform a given food into a more healthy one without diminishing the
hedonistic aspects
• Food pairing principles - which foods go well together and why? Do any of these
principles transcend different culinary traditions and cultures? If so, what are the
determinants and underlying mechanisms of such universality?
• Can humans be addicted to foods? If so, is this a physical or a behavioural addiction?
• Can new insights into the physics of the structure and manipulation of food allow us
to develop new textures, or textures that change according to the environment or
over time while being consumed?
• The inverse problem in cooking: from a perceptual and physical description of (the
perfect) end result of a cooking process, can we describe the physical treatment(s) of
the raw materials that will result in a given (e.g. the optimal) end result?