Testing the ways in which the environment can affect the taste of food or drink

A team of designers and industrial architects and a psychologist at the University of Campania in Italy have tested some of the ways that the surrounding environment can affect the taste of food or drink. The group presented at the 24th International Congress of Acoustics, a conference outlining their preliminary results last year. They have since published their paper in the journal Food quality and priority. In their study, the group asked volunteers in different settings to taste low-sugar orange juice.

Previous research has shown that many aspects of the Western diet can lead to weight gain and a wide range of health problems. One of the elements of the western diet that has received attention is sugar. Medical researchers have been looking for ways to reduce the amount of sugar people consume. In this new effort, the research team wondered whether changing the environment in which people consume beverages such as orange juice might change their perception of its sweet taste and, therefore, how much they drink. To find out, they asked volunteers to drink low-sugar orange juice at several locations.

The idea behind this research stems from recent work by others. For example, in 2017, a research team found that people thought chocolate samples tasted sweeter when listening to soft music compared to loud music. Another group conducted a study the following year and found that people tended to eat more when listening to music at low volume.

In their experiment, the researchers found that people sitting in a warm environment with high-frequency background noise and red decor perceived low-sugar orange juice as sweeter than when they were sitting in a restaurant with cool lighting, green decor, and subdued colors. . They suggest that changing the environment in which people eat and drink may cause them to consume less sugar without actively trying.