Odour-induced Taste Enhancement and Consumption of Low-sugar Pastry

Abstract

This paper describes a study that tests for the enhancement of low-sugar pastry via olfaction and examines its effects on pastry consumption. Olfactory taste enhancement preserves the nutritional benefits of low-sugar pastry while retaining the pleasure of full-sugar pastry. Willingness to reduce sugar intake and eat healthily is stronger today than at any time before in western societies, and low-sugar pastry can be effective in reducing sugar intake among consumers in these markets. The challenge, however, is that consumers' liking of pastry is driven by the sweet taste pastry eating procures; reducing pastry sugar content makes it healthier but probably less tasty and thus of a low market acceptability. Results from laboratory experiments show that smelling clearly perceivable sugar-associated odour significantly enhances perceived sweetness and pleasantness, and leads to the higher consumption of low-sugar pastry. These findings have implications for pastry makers and retailers as well as for social marketers. Odour-induced taste enhancement enables food makers and retailers to achieve the goals of selling both tasty and healthy pastry. It can be also a vector to promoting healthy pastry by converting the ‘healthy = untasty’ attitude into a ‘healthy and tasty’ attitude.

Gender effects on odor-induced taste enhancement and subsequent food consumption

“…Vanillin, which is an odorous extract of vanilla, is a sugar-congruent odor and used as such in sensory marketing research in Western countries including in France (Spence, 2015; Thai et al , 2011). Vanillin is a sweet taste-congruent olfactory input was confirmed in a study by Koubaa (2017), who found strong associations between vanillin and sweetness ratings from experimental data gathered in France.…”

“…Similar findings were also reported by Schifferstein and Verlegh (1996) for liquid items. Other odors such as chocolate and cinnamon are found to enhance sweetness perception and boost consumption of pastry (Biswas et al , 2014; Krishna, 2012; Koubaa, 2017). This finding was also significant for pairings of salty odors and saltiness levels (Nasri et al , 2011).…”

“…Olfactory marketing has long been used to evoke sensory food experiences and influence pre- and post-eating food choices. With the development of new technologies allowing for complete control of odorous molecules in the headspace and in food, recent olfactory marketing research is investigating how odor can be used to enhance the taste properties of food (Biswas et al , 2014; Krishna, 2012; Koubaa, 2017). It was found that smelling congruent food odors enhances taste perception and boosts consumption.…”

Olfactory and Gustatory Supra-Threshold Sensitivities Are Linked to Ad Libitum Snack Choice

“…The two gustatory stimuli were sucrose (T1: sweet taste) and salt (T2: salty/savoury taste). These odour and taste stimuli had been demonstrated in previous research to be associated with perception of sweet and savoury foods [63,64].…”

L'interaction odeur‐goût et ses effets marketing sur la perception et la consommation des produits diététiques

“…En effet, il a été démontré que la stimulation olfactive intensifie le goût à deux conditions: (1) que l'odeur sentie soit congruente avec le goût attendu et (2) que le goût soit gustativement perceptible avant l'intervention de la stimulation olfactive (Meierhenrich et al, 2005). En l'absence de la condition de congruence, l'effet intensificateur est partiellement ou totalement anéanti (Krishna et al, 2014), et si le goût n'est pas perceptible gustativement avant l'intervention de la stimulation olfactive, cette dernière ne peut pas l'engendrer (Koubaa, 2017). Or, dans le cas de produits diététiques, on peut s'attendre à ce que la stimulation olfactive soit peu efficace dans l'influence de la perception de goût étant donné que les produits diététiques sont pauvres en ingrédients gustatifs qui sont les stimuli réels du goût.…”