Background noise affects taste of foods, research shows

[thewinchester]

For those of us who love our food on board, some new research out of the UK is showing that sounds, and specifically background noise can affect our perception of taste.

Background noise affects taste of foods, research shows
By Jason Palmer, Science and technology reporter, BBC News

The level of background noise affects both the intensity of flavour and the perceived crunchiness of foods, researchers have found.
<snip>
It may go some way to explaining why airline food is notoriously bland - a phenomenon that drives airline catering companies to heavily season their foods.
"There's a general opinion that aeroplane foods aren't fantastic," said Andy Woods, a researcher from Unilever's laboratories and the University of Manchester.

"I'm sure airlines do their best - and given that, we wondered if there are other reasons why the food would not be so good. One thought was perhaps the background noise has some impact," he told BBC News.

"Nasa gives their space explorers very strong-tasting foods, because for some reason thay can't taste food that strongly - again, perhaps it's the background noise.

"There was no previous research on this, so we went about seeing if the hunch was correct."

 

[ozavanti]

Good article.

Reminded me of one i read in the WSJ about Lufthansa discovering that our perceptions of sweetness and saltiness drop by up to 30%.

Lufthansa Searches for Savor in the Sky - WSJ.com

 

[thewinchester]

Good article.

Reminded me of one i read in the WSJ about Lufthansa discovering that our perceptions of sweetness and saltiness drop by up to 30%.

Lufthansa Searches for Savor in the Sky - WSJ.com

Yep, that article has also been posted:
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....news/test-flight-lh-searches-savor-25954.html