The Science of Taste Impact on the Food and Beverage Industry of a Better Understanding of the Human Palate
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The science of taste Impact on the food and beverage industry of a better understanding of the human palate Sponsored by: The science of taste 1 Impact on the food and beverage industry of a better understanding of the human palate Contents 2 About the research and acknowledgments 3 Executive summary 4 Introduction 5 Chapter 1 Big data: How AI and data analytics disrupt the food and beverages industry 8 Chapter 2 Food and travel: The globalisation of our tastes 11 Chapter 3 The new ordinary: Picking your favourite diet 14 Conclusion © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2019 The science of taste 2 Impact on the food and beverage industry of a better understanding of the human palate About the research and acknowledgments The science behind taste: Impact on the food and beverage industry of a better understanding of the human palate is an Economist Intelligence Unit report, sponsored by The Japan Food Product Overseas Promotion Center (JFOODO). It explores how new technologies, new lifestyles and scientific research have contributed to new understandings of the human palate. Better insight may dispel long-held beliefs about which tastes work best together, leading to new pairings that may not only taste better together, but are also healthier. This could not only indicate new opportunities for the food and beverage industry but also challenge these traditional industries to adjust their product development and business strategies. The report includes input from four experts in the food industry. We would like to thank the following people for their time and insight: • Brian Power, lecturer in nutrition and honorary senior dietitian, University College London Hospital • Isabelle Decitre, founder and CEO, ID Capital • Bernard Lahousse, founder, Foodpairing • Robin Zavou, executive chef, Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong The report was written by Lucy Jenkins and edited by Naka Kondo. © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2019 The science of taste 3 Impact on the food and beverage industry of a better understanding of the human palate Executive summary Our preferences, and taste, for food are not awareness of where and how their food as static as they seem. But some combinations ingredients have been grown, while giving do tend to stick. Is there a science behind producers more precise forecasting taste and what we find appealing? This paper models of supply and demand. explores the roles new technologies, our lifestyles and food science have played in • Globalisation and the homogenised influencing the food and beverages industry, diet: as people travel more and are our understanding of taste, and our future exposed to a wider range of food through dining experience. various media, we are eating a more homogenised diet no matter where we live, The key takeaways of this report are: which is straining resources. Therefore, supporting global diversity in tastes while • How technology is informing our keeping food systems sustainable is technologies such as machine tastebuds: becoming a significant challenge. learning are being developed to deal with the complexity and variety of data • New scientific findings will continue in the food industry and our very own to redefine our optimal diet going tastebuds. New technologies inform some forward: the more we develop an of the biggest consumer companies on understanding of our palate, the more it taste preferences to adequately meet becomes apparent that taste preferences consumer needs. relate to numerous factors such as sensitivity thresholds, learning, genetics, • How technologies are helping society nutritional deficiencies, and early exposure explore new flavours, and new to certain foods. combinations of taste: new technologies have also enabled companies to extract • The new ordinary: new information different aromas from food ingredients, about food ingredients and taste not only and digitise them, to make entirely new confirm the obvious ways to consume flavours and food products—as well as food, but also predict new and less revealing non-traditional combinations of expected ingredient pairings. There is food ingredients that will go well together. creativity in blending human and artificial intelligence, which may open many more • New technologies have the potential doors in how we could taste and perceive algorithms such to lessen food waste: food in future. as those used by Consumer Flavour Intelligence inform major companies to optimise food production by striking the preferences shared by a larger number of consumers, helping them to reduce waste and over-production. Artificial intelligence (AI) and big data have also been instrumental in giving consumers © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2019 The science of taste 4 Impact on the food and beverage industry of a better understanding of the human palate Introduction White wine and seafood, red meat and red citrus, vinegars or other ferments. A lot of wine. Fish with lemon, and lamb with mint. it is trial and error, which has been honed These are some of the most widely known throughout the centuries and, depending food and flavour pairings that appear on on the chef’s preferences, take into account thousands of menus the world over and have seasonality and what is freshest at that time.” persisted over centuries—from Michelin- starred fine dining to beachside cafes. What is the future dining experience? If you had asked an educated person even merely But are these combinations still as relevant a decade ago, you may have received a wry today? Now, it has become more or less response on robotic waiters perhaps, or a acceptable to ask for whichever wine you sauce that tastes of one thing but is composed desire when ordering your steak, wherever of something else entirely—but this is a reality you are, while experimental chefs combine closer than we think. all sorts of unusual ingredients. When he opened The Fat Duck in Bray, England in From machines creating new tastes and 1995, British chef Heston Blumenthal’s snail flavours to algorithms that detect even the porridge and white chocolate and caviar slightest blemish on an otherwise perfectly evidently piqued the interest of thousands respectable fruit, AI and data science are of diners who patiently endured the months’ shaping the future of food, and ultimately long waiting list. our tastes. Mr Blumenthal’s other unorthodox pairings AI is also integral when it comes to food have also included strawberries and coriander, sustainability and food security. This is a beetroot and green peppercorn jelly, and looming issue that keeps many a food scientist chocolate and smoked eel. awake at night: just how do we feed the world’s booming population when climate To better understand the science behind food change is very clearly wreaking havoc on pairings and “the sensations of taste” if you crops and food sources globally? like, then it’s all about the balance of textures and flavours and how they enhance each other, says Robin Zavou, executive chef of the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong. “Take a nice piece of turbot,” he says. “It’s already quite robust and meaty as a fish and if you roast it on the bone, then you’ll have even more flavour coming through from the bone itself so you’ll look at something to balance out the dish. “If you want an enhancer, you can add a citrus or vinegar to bring out the flavour—especially when it comes to sauces. It’s all about acidity— © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2019 The science of taste 5 Impact on the food and beverage industry of a better understanding of the human palate Chapter 1 Big data: How AI and data analytics disrupt the food and beverages industry As little as 50 years ago, flavours and example, under “fresh”, “tinned” or “pureed” individual consumer preferences were and each one broken down into a whole quite straightforward and ingrained. spectrum of different aroma profiles. That’s all changed now. Adventurous food To Mr Lahousse, a strawberry is not merely tech start-ups and food scientists are subtly a strawberry. It is a rich melting pot of a altering our food perceptions so that you few dozen aromas. The average consumer may end up eating broccoli, and enjoying it, using their keenest sense of smell would without even realising. only be able to detect a couple, and even then would struggle to name what they think AI is a field of computer science that deals they can detect. with smart machines that aim to mimic the human brain. It is increasingly used By using a method called GC-MS (gas by various industries, companies and chromatography–mass spectrometry), government agencies to make accurate Mr Lahousse is able to extract different predictions on human behaviour, aromas from a strawberry and then characteristics and preferences to build digitise it to make entirely new flavours up a more or less accurate profile of a and food products. subject. The food and beverage industry is no exception, where aggregated data “A strawberry is actually a blend of five and machine learning give in-depth analysis different aroma compounds of ethyl to our very own tastebuds. butanoate (fruity), gamma-decalactone (peach/coconut), furaneol (caramel) It may surprise you, but our sense of smell, butanoic acid (cheesy) and (Z)-3-hexenal rather more so than our taste plays a (green),” he says. dominant role in our flavour experience. Olfaction helps us differentiate up to 10,000 “When different foods share certain key different aroma molecules. Think about having aromas they are more likely to pair well a cup of coffee with the delicious scents of in a recipe. We all know the classic roasted coffee beans wafting out of the cup, combination of strawberry and chocolate. and then try drinking it while holding your It’s mainly the shared ‘roasted’ aromas nose.