Take the Time to Smell the ... Food?

Researchers in food research have investigated how quickly odors are evaluated—if a quick sniff has a different response than something that is smelled repeatedly, or over a longer period of time. Their sensory research experiments revealed that more time led to a more in-depth evaluation.

"I would say that people may be making decisions about the identity and perhaps even the hedonic quality of food flavors and aromas more quickly than previously thought," study leader Alan Gelperin explained.

Gelperin and his colleagues used trained mice to discover whether longer exposure to an odor would result in more accurate identification of that odor. The results indicated that the mice needed extra time to accurately identify more complex odors.

"The well-trained mouse needs almost half a second to solve a difficult olfactory discrimination task," said lead author Dmitry Rinberg.

"The development of colour television was based on extensive studies of visual sensory processing. Modern MP3 players are built based on a deep knowledge about properties of our hearing capabilities," said Rinberg. "Similarly, increased knowledge of olfactory processing has the obvious potential to open many doors, perhaps including development of electronic olfactory systems."

Electronic noses are used commercially to detect odor molecules, saving costs through their ability to detect the quality of products such as detecting the flavors of different kinds of cheese, sniffing the quality of wine and coffee, and detecting fishy seafood before it gets to the consumer.
Of course, researchers admit that previous experience and the motivational state of the participant have an effect on how the aroma information is processed.

But the decision about how to encourage consumers to take the time to get an adequate sample of an aroma is up to marketing departments or a creative and experienced food business consultant, who can help develop a strategy that works for your company.