Could this be lunch?

The Nordic Workshop in Sensory Science was held at a spa resort in Snekkersten, Denmark, not far from the castle setting of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Compusense exhibited at the event, providing us with an opportunity to connect with our clients as well as researchers and practitioners working in the field. This is our tangible show of support for the field of sensory and consumer studies in the Nordic countries. The theme this time was professionalism, with emphasis on the action words of the discipline: evoke, measure, analyze, and interpret.

The relatively small conference provides many opportunities for discussion, both public and private. I appreciated having chances to socialize, learn, and discuss professional and research interests, and this, along with workshop activities were certainly the highlight of the event. On the program, three presentations stood out for me:

Dr. Mari Sandell (University of Turku) gave an interesting talk that demonstrated relatedness between genotypes, PROP/PTC sensitivity, and food choice. PROP/PTC sensitive individuals experience bitter more intensely in many foods, which often translates into lower veggie consumption and heavier sugar use. These investigations underscore the complexity inherent in studying consumer preferences of where populations of interest might be quite heterogeneous in their sensory perceptions. I thought that her findings squared nicely with conclusions made by Dr. John Hayes (Penn State) at the recent Pangborn Symposium, who discussed bitter receptors and their relationship to healthy eating, as well as the importance of using a bitter substance appropriate for the study when screening potential assessors.

Chantal Gilbert (former Compusense statistician now with Campden BRI) had the dreaded early-morning- after-the-conference-banquet slot, with the added challenge of presenting statistics to non-statisticians (mostly). It’s been some time since I’ve had the opportunity to hear Chantal present, and true to form she gave a very engaging talk. The emphasis was on similarity testing, anova/regression, and the (mis-)interpretation of PCA biplots. Statistics is more than pressing a button on a piece of software, and she illustrated this nicely, pointing out several potential pitfalls.

Dr. Frank Meijer (DSM) discussed a specific ingredient formulation for a Japanese food which elicited the sensation of kokumi, a putative sixth taste. The sensation is well identified in Japanese society, and associated with thickness, roundness and balance, often arising after long processes such as stewing or cheese-ripening. It is often expressed alongside umami, and at a receptor level involves Calcium-sensing receptors on the tongue that respond to certain peptides (e.g. glutathione). This was one of those rare presentations that made me sit up and begin furious note-taking. Later, I discovered that his presentation will be among those available on the conference website.

There were other good presentations, but the only other one I will mention here was the banquet keynote by Thomas Raab, well-known popularizer of science in Denmark. His high-energy talk on the brain and the senses delivered a live version of television-quality edu-tainment, peppered with well-timed humour. Sometimes he poked fun at himself. Sometimes he poked fun at ants, who he says carry a living ant “kicking and screaming” to the burial heap based on a chemical cue (oleic acid) applied by a researcher. Sometimes he directed his humour, gently or pointedly, at us. His parting message: if we really want to be agents of positive change for a better and more sustainable world, we should use our knowledge to get people in the developed world eating insects instead of meat. Following that challenge, you might have expected chocolate crickets to be served for dessert, allowing our speaker to take a proper leadership role. I fear it was an opportunity lost for the cause of entomophagy, but perhaps some intrepid researcher will prove me wrong when the next Nordic sensory workshop to be held in Helsinki in 2013.

The IFT2011 Annual Meeting and Expo was held in New Orleans, Louisiana June 11^th to 14^th.

The first day of the conference was a memorable one! Our Chairman, Dr. Chris Findlay received the inaugural 2011 Sensory and Consumer Sciences Achievement Award for his admirable contributions to the field of sensory and consumer sciences. Dr. Howard Schutz, Emeritus Professor of Consumer Sciences, University of California at Davis also received this prestigious award. Congratulations to both of you!

The scientific symposiums offered a vast array of learning opportunities. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to attend all of the sessions that I was interested in.

This year, two sensory symposiums were devoted to the research associated with using consumer emotions to guide product development. Silvia King, Senior Principal Scientist at McCormick and Company Inc. shared her knowledge pertaining to the evaluation of consumer emotions concurrently with the assessment of consumer liking. Silvia’s research on the assessment of consumer emotions is paramount in setting the stage for the establishment of best practices in this area. Melissa Knorr, Principal Scientist at Kraft Foods shared her insights into the differentiation of food products by consumers on an emotional level. Melissa pointed out that products may achieve parity for liking, however; their emotional profiles could be quite different. Assessing these differences has provided her with valuable insight from a product development perspective.

The sensory symposium on achieving sodium reduction in the food industry was enlightening. Leslie Stein from the Monell Chemical Senses Centre presented research that suggested that the food industry should focus on salt enhancers, rather than salt replacers. Beth Roche, Global Director Sensory and Product Development at the Campbell Soup Company shared Campbell’s journey to salt reduction for a number of their product lines. She noted that the road to salt reduction hasn’t been easy and that they are still working on reformulating lower salt versions of a number of their products.

Soo-Yeun Lee, Associate Professor at the University of Illinois talked about the trends associated with salt reduction in processed foods and how they relate to the levels of fat and herbs and spices. A key finding for Soo-Yeun, was that low fat ranch dressings on the market tended to be higher in sodium than their regular fat counterpart. Unfortunately, this means that consumers trying to achieve a healthy diet by choosing low fat alternatives are penalized with higher salt levels. Learning this certainly reinforces my belief that a moderate diet consisting of a variety of foods is one of the keys to solving society’s health issues!

On that note, I had the opportunity to enjoy a wide variety of different cuisine during my first visit to New Orleans. Dante’s Kitchen in the garden district was amazing! The “Chicken Roasted under a Brick” was covered in a maple glaze and was exceptionally moist. From a sensory perspective, I was particularly intrigued and delighted by the “Barq’s Root Beer Candied Sweet Potatoes”. Saturday night we ventured to Gautreau’s, to celebrate Chris’ receipt of the Sensory and Consumer Sciences Achievement Award. Gautreau’s is located on a quaint street in the heart of the garden district. I would highly recommend the Wild Mushroom and Ricotta Cannelloni which is served with lacinato kale, spicy tomato ragout and sauce Mornay. The Caramelized Banana Split was also a highlight of my meal! On our last night in New Orleans, the Compusense group ventured to GW Fins in the French Quarter. I have to say that the BBQ shrimp was the highlight of my meal, as was the wild mushroom risotto.

Overall, I had a memorable time at IFT this year and I look forward to the opportunity to attend IFT 2012 in Las Vegas!

P.S. The 9^th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium will be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 4^th to 8^th. Hope to see you there!