Neurogastronomy as a Tool for Evaluating Emotions and Visual Preferences of Selected Food Served in Different Ways

Effect of Shape, Size, and Color of the Food Plate on Consumer Perception of Energy Value, Portion Size, Attractiveness, and Expected Price of Dessert

The development of new dishes in the catering services market requires an understanding of consumers' needs, expectations, and motivations for their choices. The effect of the serving method of a dessert on customers' perceptions of its visual appeal, portion size, energy value, and expected price was evaluated. The study involved the presentation of desserts on plates of various sizes, shapes, and colors. The study was carried out among 1005 respondents using the CAWI method. Our findings revealed that along with an increasing plate size from a diameter of ϕ24-27 cm to ϕ31 cm, the ratings of the dish's perceived appearance (p ≤ 0.001), portion size (p ≤ 0.001), and energy value (p ≤ 0.01) decreased. Plate shape influenced the perceived appearance of the dessert. When placed on a square platter, round desserts were considerably (p ≤ 0.05) less appealing. The color of the plate had a significant influence (p ≤ 0.001) on the dish's perceived appearance and estimated monetary value, and it evoked more sensory-hedonic impressions. Red-plate and white-plate desserts were liked less than black-plate desserts, but color-plated desserts were perceived as more expensive than those served on white dishes. Consumers perceived bright desserts on white plates as traditional, natural, and boring; those on black plates as modern, appetizing, and aesthetic; and those served on red plates as artificial, unsightly, and unappetizing. Higher consumer food neophobia led to a lower rating related to appearance and price perceptions, but elevated perceptions of portion size and energy value appraisal. Our results may be used in the marketing of gastronomic dishes.

How much is a chef's touch worth? Affective, emotional and behavioural responses to food images: A multimodal study

BACKGROUND

Food aesthetics influences affective dimensions (valence and arousal) and subsequent emotional and behavioural responses in images presented in more traditional form, almost rustic in some cases, to the signature dishes of haute cuisine. However, the visual impact of images of haute cuisine dishes on consumers' affective and emotional responses compared to traditional dishes is still understudied.

METHODS

We recorded electrodermal activity, ocular movements and self-report affect of 35 volunteers while they performed a picture viewing paradigm using images of haute cuisine food, traditional food, and non-food. Additionally, the moderating role of age was examined.

RESULTS

Our results showed that subjects had higher feelings of pleasure and arousal toward images of food (haute cuisine and traditional dishes) compared to non-food images. However, no difference in self-report affect, physiological and behavioural responses was found between haute cuisine and traditional dishes. Interestingly, a moderating effect of age was revealed, reporting that younger participants had greater feelings of pleasure and shorter eye-to-screen distance towards traditional food than haute cuisine.

CONCLUSIONS

As a whole, our findings suggest that food aesthetics could at least partially affect consumers' affective and emotional responses. Interestingly, physiological responses to food pictures seemed to be relatively independent of approach/avoidance motivational states, supporting the assumption that traditional visual restaurant menus with attractive images might be insufficient for eliciting intense positive emotions. This study also contributes to advancing the understanding of the role that age plays in emotional impact when images of haute cuisine dishes are presented to consumers.

Application of Aroma Precursors in Food Plant Raw Materials: Biotechnological Aspect

The article is devoted to the analysis of the main factors accompanying the use of aroma precursors, in particular, of a lipid nature, in food raw materials. The prerequisites for the impact on the precursors of aroma with the help of plant enzymes are given. The purpose of the article is to analyze the biotechnological aspect, which is based on enzymatic reactions with aroma precursors and enzymes of plant origin. Features of the mechanism of action of lipid precursors are highlighted, their diversity causing various characteristic reactions is analyzed, and possible end products of reactions with certain odors are noted. The attention is paid to the issue of the status of the naturalness of flavor precursors in food products, which varies in different countries. A scheme of factors influencing the formation of aroma from lipid precursors has been developed. The influence of pigments of carotenoid nature on the aroma is considered, namely: examples of instantaneous change of watermelon aroma to pumpkin one due to isomerization of carotenoids are given. The main factors of enzymatic formation of aroma from precursors of polyunsaturated fatty acids for their effective use by creating micromicelles are summarized. A way to overcome the barrier of interaction between lipid precursors of a hydrophobic nature and hydrophilic enzymes has been substantiated. It is proposed to accelerate enzymatic reactions under in vitro conditions and use the vacuum effect to overcome the barrier between enzymes and precursors. To explain the effect of vacuum in a system with enzymes, ideas about disjoining pressure and the reasonable expediency of its use are considered. A schematic process flow diagram for the restoration of aroma lost during the technological processing of raw materials is given; it demonstrates the factors for ensuring interfacial activation conditions for enzymes and aroma precursors.

A Review of AI Cloud and Edge Sensors, Methods, and Applications for the Recognition of Emotional, Affective and Physiological States

Affective, emotional, and physiological states (AFFECT) detection and recognition by capturing human signals is a fast-growing area, which has been applied across numerous domains. The research aim is to review publications on how techniques that use brain and biometric sensors can be used for AFFECT recognition, consolidate the findings, provide a rationale for the current methods, compare the effectiveness of existing methods, and quantify how likely they are to address the issues/challenges in the field. In efforts to achieve the key goals of Society 5.0, Industry 5.0, and human-centered design better, the recognition of emotional, affective, and physiological states is progressively becoming an important matter and offers tremendous growth of knowledge and progress in these and other related fields. In this research, a review of AFFECT recognition brain and biometric sensors, methods, and applications was performed, based on Plutchik's wheel of emotions. Due to the immense variety of existing sensors and sensing systems, this study aimed to provide an analysis of the available sensors that can be used to define human AFFECT, and to classify them based on the type of sensing area and their efficiency in real implementations. Based on statistical and multiple criteria analysis across 169 nations, our outcomes introduce a connection between a nation's success, its number of Web of Science articles published, and its frequency of citation on AFFECT recognition. The principal conclusions present how this research contributes to the big picture in the field under analysis and explore forthcoming study trends.

Screening of the Honey Aroma as a Potential Essence for the Aromachology

The aim of the study was to determine the aroma profiles of four kinds of Slovak honey (sunflower, honeydew, acacia, and linden) by a qualitative and quantitative screening of their volatile compounds and by gas chromatography for the potential use in the aromachology and the business sphere. The results showed that several unique volatiles were identified in one kind of honey, while they were not identified in the remaining ones. The acacia honey had the unique volatile linalool oxide (1.13–3.9%); linden honey had the unique volatiles nerol oxide (0.6–1.6%), ethyl esters (0.41–8.78%), lilac aldehyde D (6.6%), and acetophenone (0.37%). The honeydew honey had the unique volatiles santene (0.28%) and cyclofenchene (0.59–1.39%), whereas 2-bornene (0.43–0.81%) was typical for sunflower honey. While linden honey was characterized by fruity ethyl esters, honeydew honey had more monoterpenoid compounds. In the principal component analysis model, the four kinds of honey could not be differentiated by aroma volatiles. However, it was possible to classify the linden and sunflower honey using the LDA. In conclusion, the current study provided experimental evidence that the marker compounds from different kinds of honey might be promising candidates for production of inhaling aromas.

Neuroorganoleptics: Organoleptic Testing Based on Psychophysiological Sensing

There is an increasing interest, in consumer behaviour research related to food and beverage, in taking a step further from the traditional self-report questionnaires and organoleptic properties assessment. With the growing availability of psychophysiological data acquisition devices, and advancements in the study of the underlying signal sources seeking affective state assessment, the use of psychophysiological data analysis is a natural evolution in organoleptic testing. In this paper we propose a protocol for what can be defined as neuroorganoleptic analysis, a method that combines traditional approaches with psychophysiological data acquired during sensory testing. Our protocol was applied to a case study project named MobFood, where four samples of food were tested by a total of 83 participants, using preference and acceptance tasks, across three different sessions. Best practices and lessons learned regarding the laboratory setting and the acquisition of psychophysiological data were derived from this case study, which are herein described. Preliminary results show that certain Heart Rate Variability (HRV) features have a strong correlation with the preferences self-reported by the participants.

Aromachology Related to Foods, Scientific Lines of Evidence: A Review

Smell is the second-most used sense in marketing strategies in the food industry. Sensory marketing appeals to the senses with the aim of creating sensory experiences and converting them into specific emotions associated with a specific product. There is a strong relationship between sensory marketing, aromachology, and neuroscience. In this review, studies were searched on the use of scents in food experiences such as restaurants and food establishments, and a critical evaluation was performed on their aims, target population, place of the study, scents tested, foods tested, and measured parameters, and the main findings were reviewed. Case studies carried out by private companies are also presented. A small number of scientific studies on aromachology related to food are available, and most of them are conducted in artificial laboratory conditions. Methodological procedures largely diverge among studies, making them very difficult to compare and extrapolate results. There is a clear need for research on aromachology related to food in the fields of sensory marketing and appetite modulation. After a brief presentation of the state of the art, we briefly mention future improvements and ideas for future research.

Reading Food Experiences from the Face: Effects of Familiarity and Branding of Soy Sauce on Facial Expressions and Video-Based RPPG Heart Rate

Food experiences are not only driven by the food's intrinsic properties, such as its taste, texture, and aroma, but also by extrinsic properties such as visual brand information and the consumers' previous experiences with the foods. Recent developments in automated facial expression analysis and heart rate detection based on skin color changes (remote photoplethysmography or RPPG) allow for the monitoring of food experiences based on video images of the face. RPPG offers the possibility of large-scale non-laboratory and web-based testing of food products. In this study, results from the video-based analysis were compared to the more conventional tests (scores of valence and arousal using Emojis and photoplethysmography heart rate (PPG)). Forty participants with varying degrees of familiarity with soy sauce were presented with samples of rice and three commercial soy sauces with and without brand information. The results showed that (1) liking and arousal were affected primarily by the specific tastes, but not by branding and familiarity. In contrast, facial expressions were affected by branding and familiarity, and to a lesser degree by specific tastes. (2) RPPG heart rate and PPG both showed effects of branding and familiarity. However, RPPG heart rate needs further development because it underestimated the heart rate compared to PPG and was less sensitive to changes over time and with activity (viewing of brand information and tasting). In conclusion, this study suggests that recording of facial expressions and heart rates may no longer be limited to laboratories but can be done remotely using video images, which offers opportunities for large-scale testing in consumer science.