How fat in food influences flavour perception

Washington -  Researchers have for the first time found that fat in food can reduce activity in several areas of the brain which are responsible for processing taste, aroma and reward.

The findings are the result of a joint study carried out by The University of Nottingham and the multinational food company Unilever.

The research provides the food industry with better understanding of how in the future it might be able to make healthier, less fatty food products without negatively affecting their overall taste and enjoyment.

This fascinating three-year study investigated how the brains of a group of participants in their 20s would respond to changes in the fat content of four different fruit emulsions they tasted while under an MRI scanner.

All four samples were of the same thickness and sweetness, but one contained flavour with no fat, while the other three contained fat with different flavour release properties.

The research found that the areas of the participants' brains which are responsible for the perception of flavour, such as the somatosensory cortices and the anterior, mid and posterior insula, were significantly more activated when the non-fatty sample was tested compared to the fatty emulsions despite having the same flavour perception.

It is important to note that increased activation in these brain areas does not necessarily result in increased perception of flavour or reward.

"This is the first brain study to assess the effect of fat on the processing of flavour perception and it raises questions as to why fat emulsions suppress the cortical response in brain areas linked to the processing of flavour and reward. It also remains to be determined what the implications of this suppressive effect are on feelings of hunger, satiety and reward," said Dr Joanne Hort, Associate Professor in Sensory Science at The University of Nottingham.

Unilever food scientist Johanneke Busch, based at the company’s Research and Development laboratories in Vlaardingen, Netherlands added: "There is more to people's enjoyment of food than the product's flavour, like its mouthfeel, its texture and whether it satisfies hunger, so this is a very important building block for us to better understand how to innovate and manufacture healthier food products which people want to buy."

The research has been made available in the Springer journal Chemosensory Perception.