Individualization of Flavor Preferences: Toward a Consumer-centric and Individualized Aroma Science

Personal dietary choices are largely based on flavor preferences. Thus understanding individual flavor perception and preference is vital to understanding the basis of human diet selection. We have developed novel tools to measure in real time and at an individual level volatile aroma compounds delivered breath-by-breath to the nose while eating and drinking. The same food may deliver different aromas to different people, due the specificities of their in-mouth environment (inter-individual differences). Moreover, a person may eat a given food in a different manner, leading to variations in the aroma profile reaching the nose (intra-individual differences). Understanding the basis of these differences opens the door to an individualized aroma science and the road to delivering nutritional value and health through products consumers prefer. The challenge to the food industry is to align what the consumer wants with what the consumer needs, delivering nutritional value and health through products they prefer.