Betina Piqueras-Fiszman

Assessing the impact of the tableware and other contextual variables on multisensory flavour perception

Currently little is known about how the non-edible items associated with eating and drinking (tableware items such as the plates, bowls, cutlery, glasses, bottles, condiment containers, etc.), or even environmental factors (such as the lighting and/or background music), affect people’s perception of foodstuffs. Here, we review the latest evidence demonstrating the importance of these contextual variables on the consumer’s behavioural and hedonic response to, and sensory perception of, a variety of food and drink items. These effects are explained by a combination of psychological factors (high level attributes, such as perceived quality, that may be mediating the effects under consideration), perceptual factors (such as the Ebbinghaus-Titchener size-contrast illusion and colour contrast in the case of the colour of the plateware affecting taste/flavour perception), and physiological-chemical factors (such as differences in the release of volatile organic compounds from differently-shaped wine glasses). Together, these factors help to explain the growing body of evidence demonstrating that both the tableware and the environment can have a profound effect on our perception of food and drink.

There's more to taste in a coloured bowl.

The flavour and pleasantness of food and drinks are affected by their colour, their texture or crunch, and even by the shape and weight of the plate or glass. But, can the colour of the bowl also affect the taste of the food it contains? To answer this question we served popcorn in four different coloured bowls, and participants rated sweetness, saltiness, and overall liking. The sweet popcorn, in addition to being sweet, was perceived as saltier when eaten out of a coloured (as compared to a white) bowl, and vice versa for the salty popcorn. These results demonstrate that colour in bowl design can be used to elicit perceptions of sweetness and saltiness in real foods.

Temporal, affective, and embodied characteristics of taste experiences: a framework for design

We present rich descriptions of taste experience through an analysis of the diachronic and synchronic experiences of each of the five basic taste qualities: sweet, sour, salt, bitter, and umami. Our findings, based on a combination of user experience evaluation techniques highlight three main themes: temporality, affective reactions, and embodiment. We present the taste characteristics as a framework for design and discuss each taste in order to elucidate the design qualities of individual taste experiences. These findings add a semantic understanding of taste experiences, their temporality enhanced through descriptions of the affective reactions and embodiment that the five basic tastes elicit. These findings are discussed on the basis of established psychological and behavioral phenomena, highlighting the potential for taste-enhanced design.

Technology at the dining table

In this article, we highlight some of the various ways in which digital technologies may increasingly come to influence, and possibly even transform, our fine dining experiences (not to mention our everyday interactions with food and drink) in the years to come. We distinguish between several uses of technology in this regard: For example, to enhance the taste/flavour of food; to provide entertainment and/or to deliver more memorable experiences around food and drink; not to mention helping those who want to eat more healthily. We outline the different routes by which digital technology may arrive at the table (and in some cases already has): on the one hand, technology may be provided by the restaurants or bars for their diners’/patrons’ benefit; on the other, it may be brought to the table by the diners themselves (most likely via their own handheld portable electronic devices). While many of the former technological innovations will no doubt first make their appearance at the tables of cutting edge high-end restaurants, the most successful of them will likely be appearing at the home dining table within a couple of years. Like it or not, then, digital technologies will constitute an increasingly common feature of the dining table of the future.

Assessing the influence of the color of the plate on the perception of a complex food in a restaurant setting

BackgroundNowadays, more and more importance is given to how restaurant dishes are visually presented. With regard to the color of the plate, several recent studies have demonstrated that identical foods served on plates (or in containers) of different colors are often perceived differently at both the sensorial and hedonic levels. However, to date, these effects have not been tested in an ecologically valid setting with a range of more complex foods in order to assess the generalizability of the findings. The aims of the present study were to test the extent to which the color of the plate may influence the gustatory and hedonic experiences of a complex food. Specifically, we investigated diners’ perception of three desserts served on a white or black plate in a between-participants experimental design in a real restaurant setting.ResultsThe results demonstrated that the color of the plate exerted a significant influence on people’s perception of the food, but that this effect varied as a function of the type of dessert served. The effects cannot be explained only in terms of color contrast. Color-flavor associations, for example, black with intense chocolate flavor, or even sophisticated chocolate, could have an impact too. Interestingly, the perceptual pattern for each dessert was constant for each plate used; that is, for all of the attributes rated, the higher scores were obtained with the same plate, for all of the desserts.ConclusionsThese results confirm the importance of the color of the plate (or background color) on people’s expectation and perception of food, even in realistic and less controlled conditions, such as that of a restaurant.

Plating manifesto (II): the art and science of plating

It is well known that people serve themselves more, not to mention eat more, when dining from larger bowls and plates than from smaller ones. But what about the other visual qualities of the plateware? Does the colour, shape and finish also influence a diner’s behaviour? How important are these extrinsic visual properties, or even the visual arrangement of the elements on the plate itself, in terms of modulating a diner’s eating behaviours and experiences? At a time when so much is known about the influence of the colour of individual food products on taste and flavour perception, and when so many modernist restaurants are using an increasingly eclectic range of visual designs for their dishes, there has been surprisingly little scientific research on how the more complex visual properties and arrangement of food presentations may affect the diner. Below, we argue that the exploration of these effects constitutes the next natural step in an increasingly fruitful interdisciplinary collaboration between chefs, psychologists, sensory scientists and designers. The most important research questions, then, are to identify the kinds of effects that the presentation style has on the multisensory consumption experiences and behaviours of diners, and to study the interactions between the different visual cues that are provided. Taken together, the evidence reviewed here helps to emphasize the fact that getting both the plateware and the plating right constitute surprisingly important components to sublimate the flavours of the food, in the delivery and experience of a great meal.

The plating manifesto (I): from decoration to creation

At a time when a growing number of chefs and innovative food industries are starting to set up their own research kitchens and work with renowned scientists, it is surprising to see that issues related to the visual presentation of food on the plate are being left out of these successful exchanges. The variety of presentations created by chefs, and the number of varieties of tableware now available to achieve them, represent a formidable opportunity for cognitive scientists to study the more complex effects of vision on food experiences, which certainly should not be missed. Chefs can also benefit from the new insights that a scientific approach can bring to these areas, which previously have often been left to intuition. In this manifesto, we claim that this transfer of knowledge represents much more than merely another addition to the art and science of cuisine: it is its essential completion, as gastronomy moves more and more toward the ideal of a total multisensory art, as captivating for the eye as it is for the palate. Before turning to the scientific recommendations and review in the second part of our manifesto, we want to promote a different approach to plating, which breaks with the more functional and decorative purposes of plate ware, and puts experiments in visual presentation at the heart of modernist culinary expression.

“Yummy” versus “Yucky”! Explicit and implicit approach–avoidance motivations towards appealing and disgusting foods

Wanting and rejecting food are natural reactions that we humans all experience, often unconsciously, on a daily basis. However, in the food domain, the focus to date has primarily been on the approach tendency, and researchers have tended not to study the two opposing tendencies in a balanced manner. Here, we develop a methodology with which to understand peoples implicit and explicit reactions to both positive (appealing) and negative (disgusting) foods. It consists of a combination of direct and indirect computer-based tasks, as well as a validated food image stimulus set, specifically designed to investigate motivational approach and avoidance responses towards foods. Fifty non-dieting participants varying in terms of their hunger state (hungry vs. not hungry) reported their explicit evaluations of pleasantness, wanting, and disgust towards the idea of tasting each of the food images that were shown. Their motivational tendencies towards those food items were assessed indirectly using a joystick-based approach-avoidance procedure. For each of the food images that were presented, the participants had to move the joystick either towards or away from themselves (approach and avoidance movements, respectively) according to some unrelated instructions, while their reaction times were recorded. Our findings demonstrated the hypothesised approach-avoidance compatibility effect: a significant interaction of food valence and direction of movement. Furthermore, differences between the experimental groups were observed. The participants in the no-hunger group performed avoidance (vs. approach) movements significantly faster; and their approach movements towards positive (vs. negative) foods were significantly faster. As expected, the self-report measures revealed a strong effect of the food category on the three dependent variables and a strong main effect of the hunger state on wanting and to a lesser extent on pleasantness.

Descriptive sensory profiling of double emulsions with gelled and non-gelled inner water phase

The use of double emulsions (w1/o/w2) has been acknowledged as a promising strategy to reduce oil content in several food applications. Despite the potential of double emulsions for oil reduction, their sensory properties have not been investigated. In this study, we investigated sensory perception of double emulsions by descriptive sensory profiling using a trained panel (n=11). Two sets of emulsions with either 30 or 50% dispersed phase fraction were studied. Each set differed in composition (gelled and non-gelled inner w1 phase, gelatin as gelling agent) and fat reduction level (30 to 50%), but was similar in oil droplet size and viscosity. Fat reduction level depended on the amount of water droplets entrapped inside the oil droplets. Emulsions were evaluated on nine attributes describing taste (T), mouth-feel (MF) and after-feel (AF) perception, including thickness (MF), creaminess (MF, AF), fattiness (MF, AF), and cohesiveness (MF). The replacement of oil by small water droplets w1 did not decrease the intensity of fat-related attributes. When inner w1 droplets were gelled, 47wt.% of oil could be replaced while increasing the intensity of fat-related attributes. This indicates that the sensory perception of single and double emulsions with gelled and non-gelled w1 phase is mainly determined by the total oil droplet surface area. The composition of the inner water phase (gelled or not) also influences the sensory perception of double emulsions. We conclude that fat reduction up to 47wt.% can be achieved in double emulsions while maintaining or enhancing fat-related sensory perception.

Oral-Somatosensory Contributions to Flavor Perception and the Appreciation of Food and Drink

In this chapter, we highlight the crucial role played by the oral-somatosensory attributes of food and drink in determining our perception, and hence our enjoyment, of many of our most preferred foods and drinks, as well as our dislike of certain others. However, beyond the multisensory textural properties of the food itself, and beyond the temperature, etc., the cutlery and crockery we use and hold when eating can also impact the tasting experience. We summarize recent examples to illustrate some of the most innovative ways in which chefs, designers, and artists are now starting to exploit the latest findings from the field of gastrophysics research in order to change, and hopefully to enhance, the eating experience-everything from encouraging people to eat with the hands through to the recent introduction of furry cutlery.