Sweeter together? Assessing the combined influence of product‐related and contextual factors on perceived sweetness of fruit beverages

Abstract

It is well‐known that multiple sensory cues influence flavor perception and liking. The present study aimed to combine and compare the relative influences of product‐related and contextual factors on taste perception and liking, with a focus on the perception of sweetness. Participants tasted samples of the same base fruit beverage with one of three different levels of added aroma, while the contextual cues (either visual or auditory) were displayed simultaneously using iPads. The results revealed that both added aroma and background music significantly influenced participants' sweetness ratings, with a medium level of added aroma enhancing sweetness significantly as compared to no added aroma, and with the sweet‐congruent soundtrack enhancing perceived sweetness significantly as compared to the bitter‐congruent soundtrack. Moreover, there was a potentially additive effect from the combination of aroma and soundtrack. These results are discussed in terms of potential mechanisms underlying multisensory flavor perception. Practical applications Consumers are nearly always exposed to a multisensory environment whenever they consume food and drink. It is therefore important to acknowledge that, beyond the food itself, what people happen to be exposed to in the environment while eating or drinking can influence their multisensory flavor experiences as well. These results are of relevance for those working on understanding a theoretical model of human sweetness perception, as well as those working on the design of healthier, sugar‐reduced food products. Indeed, the knowledge that multiple sensory cues can, at least under the appropriate conditions, work in conjunction to deliver a greater modulation of perceived taste will allow designers to come up with more effective sugar‐reduced products without reducing consumer satisfaction. Moreover, the increasing prevalence of sensory and augmented reality applications means that manufacturers can now incorporate external visual and auditory content as part of the total multisensory product experience.

Assessing the Influence of Visual-Taste Congruency on Perceived Sweetness and Product Liking in Immersive VR

“…In theory, however, mixed results have been shown in the existing literature on the influence of taste-specific visual cues on flavour perception. Some studies have indicated a significant influence of taste-congruent visual cues on product liking [2,14,24] while other studies have not reported this result [5,77]. Additionally, a recent study showed the existence of crossmodal correspondences between physical warmth and light colours [78].…”

Extrinsic Auditory Contributions to Food Perception & Consumer Behaviour: an Interdisciplinary Review

“…Hence, researchers are now starting to assess how, for example, the visual attributes of the environment, combined with the auditory atmosphere, can influence a consumer's behaviour (e.g., Sester, Deroy, Sutan, Galia, Desmarchelier, Valentin, & Dacremont, 2013;Spence, Puccinelli, Grewal, & Roggeveen, 2014;Spence, Velasco, & Knoeferle, 2014;Wang, Mielby, Thybo, Bertelsen, Kidmose, Spence, & Byrne, 2019;Wansink & Van Ittersum, 2012;. Researchers have also started to assess different ways to effectively present music as part of a food/drink product's identity.…”

“…What we hear affects what we taste, no matter whether we realise it or not (and the evidence suggests that mostly we do not, e.g., see North, Hargreaves, & McKendrick, 1997, 1999Zellner, Geller, Lyons, Pyper, & Riaz, 2017). In fact, there is now an extensive body of literature highlighting the impact of the sounds that may be associated with food preparation (Wheeler, 1938; see Knöferle & Spence, in press, for a recent review), food packaging (i.e., being opened; , 2017a; see Wang & Spence, 2019, for a review), and food consumption (e.g., Youssef, Youssef, Juravle, & Spence, 2017;Zampini & Spence, 2004; see Spence, 2015a, for a review), on people's sensory-discriminative and hedonic ratings of a wide range of different food and drink products. Such product-intrinsic auditory contributions to food perception and consumer behaviour are undoubtedly important.…”

The Role of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Sensory Factors in Sweetness Perception of Food and Beverages: A Review

“…Recently, Wang et al [28] conducted a study measuring the relative influence of both extrinsic and intrinsic factors. In a mixed model design, participants tasted samples of apple-elderflower nectars under different visual (looking at a pink or pale-yellow rectangle on an iPad screen) and auditory (listening to bitter or sweet soundtrack) conditions.…”