Dose-Response Relationships for Vanilla Flavor and Sucrose in Skim Milk: Evidence of Synergy

Abstract

Regarding cross-modality research, taste-aroma interaction is one of the most studied areas of research. Some studies have reported enhancement of sweetness by aroma, although it is unclear as to whether these effects actually occur: depending on the cognitive strategy employed by panelists, the effects may disappear, e.g., forcing panelists into an analytical strategy to control for dumping may not be able to reveal perceptual interactions. Previous studies have largely focused on solutions and model foods, and did not test stimuli or concentrations relevant to real food applications. This study addresses these gaps: 18 vanilla flavored sucrose milks, varying between 0–0.75% (w/w) two-fold vanilla, and 0–5% (w/w) sucrose, were rated by 108 panelists for liking and perceived sweetness, vanilla flavor, milk flavor, and thickness. Interactions between vanilla and sucrose were measured using deviations of real mixtures from additive models (via the isobole method), indicating vanilla aroma does enhance perceived sweetness. However, the sweetness enhancing effect of vanilla aroma was not as pronounced as that of sucrose on vanilla flavor. Measurable cross-modal interactions occur despite using an analytical cognitive strategy. More work is needed to investigate the influence of perceptual strategy on the degree of taste-aroma interactions in real foods.

Ternary Cross-Modal Interactions between Sweetness, Aroma, and Viscosity in Different Beverage Matrices

“…The vanilla aroma was in both matrices found to enhance sweet taste with increasing vanilla aroma concentrations (Tables 3 and 4), at least up to 1 mL/kg which was the maximum concentration tested in this study. As mentioned, this is in accordance with an abundance of previous literature demonstrating that addition of vanilla aroma increased sweet taste perception [6,7,16,17,[35][36][37][38][39]. However, in terms of vanilla concentration, few authors have studied the effect of vanilla aroma concentration on sweet taste intensity.…”

“…When stimuli in one sensory modality affect the perception of stimuli in another modality, it is called a cross-modal interaction [9], e.g., when the addition of aroma affects the perception of sweet taste [6,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. The effect of aromas on taste perception is, among other things, dependent on the specific aromas used [16,[18][19][20].…”

“…Lethuaut et al [34] commented that it could be due to the low level of congruency between the fruity aroma and the sweet taste in the dairy desserts investigated, that they did not observe any effects of aroma on sweet taste intensity. For the present study, we consequently chose an aroma that has previously been demonstrated to increase sweet taste multiple times in various matrices, namely vanilla aroma [6,7,16,17,[35][36][37][38][39]. Even though vanilla has been found to increase sweet taste in different matrices, other studies have shown that the type of matrix may have big effects on sensory interactions [6,40].…”

Variations in U.S. consumers' acceptability of commercially‐available rice‐based milk alternatives with respect to sensory attributes and food neophobia traits

“…Among taste attributes, only sweet taste was found to exhibit a significant sample difference, with RMAs D, E, and F containing lower amounts of sugar (Table ) exhibiting lower sweetness intensities than RMAs A, B, C, and/or G. In particular, RMA G that included vanilla flavor was rated as having a greater sweetness intensity, possibly due to vanilla flavor being considered congruent to sweet taste and thereby increasing sweetness intensity in the RMA G. Such a congruent odor‐induced sweetness enhancement had been observed in earlier psychophysical and neuroimaging studies (Seo et al, ; Small et al, ; Small & Prescott, ; Oliveira et al, ; Wang, Hayes, Ziegler, Roberts, & Hopfer, ). Wang et al () conducted a dose–response study of fluid milk to determine cross‐modal interactions between a sweet tastant (sucrose) and a congruent odor (vanilla extract). In their study, an elevated vanilla concentration resulted in a slight but significant sweetness enhancement.…”

“…In their study, an elevated vanilla concentration resulted in a slight but significant sweetness enhancement. Conversely, increasing sucrose concentration was found to lead to an increased vanilla flavor intensity (Welge‐Lüssen, Husner, Wolfensberer, & Hummel, ; Wang et al, ). In another study using a Temporal Check‐All‐That‐Apply (TCATA) method, Oliveira et al () showed that citation frequency of a vanilla flavor attribute decreased with reduced level of added sugar in chocolate‐flavored milk.…”