The ‘Mouth to Nose Merging System’: A novel approach to study the impact of odour on other sensory perceptions

The impact of odour on taste has been widely studied and it is less the case for aroma and texture perceptions. The relations between odour and texture notably are not very clear and results from previous works are not in accordance. Furthermore, there is little information on the impact of an odour, representative of an aroma released in human mouth, presented via the orthonasal route on other perceptions. Most of the time, investigations dealing with sensory interactions were carried out on food model matrices which lead to a problem for extrapolation of the results to real food products. The aim of the study was to measure the impact of an odorant flow on aroma, taste and texture perceptions when eating a complex real food. To fulfill the objective, apple was chosen as a complex and familiar real food matrix and an innovative device, called ‘Mouth to Nose Merging System’ was designed, validated and used in this work. It involved (1) an in vitro chewing simulator called ‘artificial mouth’ and delivering an odorant extract similar to the aroma released in human mouth; (2) in vivo olfactory receptors of a judge’s nose, from a trained panel. The study showed that apple texture perception can be modified by the apple odorant extract. The latter did not modify aroma and taste perception. The method gave promising results for investigating cognitive interactions resulting from food consumption as odour and texture interactions were underlined.

► An original system called ‘Mouth to Nose Merging System’ is presented.
► The system has the advantage of working with real products and not model matrices.
► This approach allows studying the influence of odour on aroma, taste and texture.
► An odour–texture cognitive interaction was found.