In the current chapter, we will introduce sensory science and the wider context in which its knowledge and research techniques are used. But first, let us get rid of some of the myths that exist around sensory science. After reading this chapter you will have a better insight into the fields in which sensory science is used and better understand what you can expect to read in the coming chapters. And it will also explain why we think it is so important that dieticians and nutritionists have a basic understanding of the biology of the senses and how to study them.

“Sensory science is not only about taste”

Sensory science studies the responses to (food) products as perceived by all five senses, that is the visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and the somatosensory system. When people are consuming food they stimulate all their sensory systems. They use their eyes to see the food, their nose to smell the food, their fingers and mouth to feel the food, and their tongue to taste the food, and they can hear the food breaking down while they chewing. So, when people talk about the taste of food they often talk about more than taste only. However, as mentioned before all the sensory systems are involved in the perception of food. And more and more it becomes clear that the tastes and flavors that are released during chewing greatly affect sensory sensations and thus “taste”.

More information on the complex biology of the sensory perception of food and its neurobiology will be explained in the Chapters Biology of the sensory organs and Neurobiology. Multiple sensory modalities can interact and influence each other and therefore influence sensory perception, in the Chapter Multimodal Interactions, you will find some illustrations of this phenomenon.

“Sensory science is more than a triangle test”

Sensory science is comparable to any other quantitative science in the sense that it poses research questions and hypotheses and tries to quantify and analyze outcome variables during experiments. You standardize all the variables that you do not want to disturb your experiment and if you cannot standardize them, you will measure them. The field of sensory science knows a rich set of tools to assess – as objectively as possible – what people perceive and how they evaluate this perception. There are many methodologies and tools to quantify responses in validated and reproducible ways. Most of the time when people talk about sensory science they think about the traditional triangle test used to see whether people can notice differences between 2 samples. However, sensory methodologies available are broader than that, you may use different designs, panels, and scaling techniques. In the section Research Methodology we will dive deeper into the most commonly used techniques, the types of sensory panels, that is the people tasting the foods, tests that can be used to assess the ability to test, and how to train expert and analytical panels to give better and more precise sensory data.

“A better Understanding sensory perception is critical for nutrition and Health”

This is the broader message that we want to convey with this book. In the section Sensory perception across the life span we will discuss interindividual variation in perception, smell and taste disorders, and other factors that affect eating behavior and therefore nutrition and health. Finally, in Chapter Strategies for food reformulation it will be discussed how we may use knowledge of sensory science for making foods more sustainable and healthy without compromising taste. Finally, as people do not only consume foods that they prefer, a better understanding of a whole diet approach, that is dietary taste patterns patterns, may help to understand the drivers of food intake of specific populations.