In the current section, we introduce sensory science and the wider context in which its knowledge and research techniques are used. But first, let us address some common myths that exist around sensory science.

After reading this chapter, you will have a better understanding of the fields where sensory science is used, and what to expect in the coming chapters. It will also explain why 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; it studies the responses to (food) products as perceived by all five senses: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and somatosensory.

When people consume 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, their tongue to taste the food, and they can hear the food breaking down as they chew.

So, when people talk about the “taste” of food, they often talk about more than just taste. However, as mentioned before, all the sensory systems are involved in the perception of food. Increasingly, it becomes clear that the tastes and flavours that are released during chewing 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  3. Gustation: the Sense of Taste and  4. Olfaction: the Sense of Smell. Multiple sensory modalities can interact and influence each other and therefore influence sensory perception, in chapter  8. Multimodal Interactions, you will find some illustrations of this phenomenon.

Sensory science is more than doing a triangle test. It is like any other quantitative science; it poses research questions and hypotheses and tries to quantify and analyse outcome variables during experiments. You standardise all the variables that can interfere with experiment and if you cannot standardise them, you measure them.

The field of sensory science offers 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 of the traditional triangle test used to figure out whether people can notice differences between two samples. However, the available sensory methodologies are broader than that; you may use different experimental designs, panels, and scaling techniques, depending on your research question.

In the section Research Methodology, we will dive deeper into commonly used techniques, the types of sensory panels (i.e., the people tasting the foods), tests used to assess sensory ability, and how to train expert and analytical panels to give better and more precise sensory data.

This is the broader message that we want to convey with this book; we want to explain why a better understanding of sensory perception is critical to improve human health trough better nutrition. In the section Sensory Perception Across the Lifespan, we will discuss interindividual variation in perception, smell and taste disorders, and other factors that affect eating behaviour and therefore, nutrition and health.

In chapter 21. Strategies for Food Reformulation we will discuss how we may use knowledge of sensory science for making foods more sustainable and healthier without compromising taste.

Finally, as people do not only consume foods that they prefer, a better understanding of a whole-diet approach (i.e., chapter 19. Dietary Taste Patterns) may help to understand the drivers of food intake in specific populations.