Project
Taste, fat and texture properties of commonly consumed foods
Food choices are primarily based on the taste and texture properties of food products. It is therefore essential to get more insight in the taste and texture of often consumed foods. With this study we aim to build a large database that contains taste and texture products of over 1,000 foods.
The SVT study assesses the taste profile of common consumed foods with a sensory panel. That is, a group of selected and trained people is rating the taste intensities of the 5 basic tastes, i.e. sweet, salt, sour, bitter and umami, in an array of foods. Moreover, the foods are being described in terms of fat sensation and eating rate. At this moment, we envisage to quantify the sensory characteristics of about 1,000 food products and meals. The foods selected for profiling are based on nutritional surveys.
The SVT study will provide a database that contains sensory data of a wide array of foods and meals. This will enable us to add sensory information to nutritional data that is already being collected in observational studies, in order to further understand food choices of specific populations, e.g. children, elderly or certain patient groups. This database will also make it possible to compare sensory profiles of diets from different cultures. In the current project we are comparing the Dutch diet to the Malay diet.
More research: Sensory and metabolic drivers of eating behaviour