感官科学：风味是什么？

Flavor! There are many definitions for flavor, but all of them contain a combination of taste and odor influenced by sensations of pain, heat, cold and other tactile sensations. Most people have taste buds. Flavor has a major role in determining the acceptability of foods and beverages. It is a dynamic sense that changes in intensity over time. The perception of flavor is really a result of a number of steps from before a substance touches your tongue and even continuing after something has been swallowed.风味!风味有很多定义，但它们都包含了受疼痛、热、冷和其他触觉影响的味道和气味的组合。大多数人都有味蕾。风味在决定食品和饮料的可接受性方面起着重要作用。它是一种动态的感觉，强度会随着时间的推移而变化。对风味的感知实际上是在某种物质接触到你的舌头之前，甚至在你吞下某种东西之后还在继续的一系列步骤的结果。
 
Flavor perception can be divided easily into three stages. The odor assessment, sniffing the food before it enters your mouth. The flavor in the mouth assessment, when the food is in the mouth. Also, the aftertaste assessment, which is the sensations perceived after a sample has been swallowed. Flavor perception can be altered by a variety of substances causing it to taste differently. There are actually seven basic tastes while the amount of smells are potentially limitless. It’s not commonly known that of all the senses, smell is the main determinant of a food or beverage items flavor. Sweet, sour, bitter, salty, savory, pungent, metallic are the seven basic tastes. Therefore, if you want to alter a food or beverage flavor you can do so by changing its smell while keeping its taste rather similar. We see this all the time in artificially flavored jellies, soft drinks and candies made primarily of the same base. They have a similar taste, but they have dramatically different flavors because of the use of different scents and fragrances.
风味感知可以很容易地分为三个阶段。气味评估，在食物进入你的嘴里之前嗅一嗅。风味在口中评估，当食物在口中。还有余味评估，也就是样品被吞下后的感觉。不同的物质会改变人们对风味的感知。实际上有七种基本的味道，而气味的数量可能是无限的。在所有的感官中，嗅觉是决定食物或饮料味道的主要因素，这一点并不为人所知。甜、酸、苦、咸、鲜、辣、金属是七种基本的味道。因此，如果你想改变食物或饮料的味道，你可以通过改变它的气味来做到这一点，同时保持它的味道相当相似。这种情况在人工调味的果冻、软饮料和主要由相同原料制成的糖果中屡见不鲜。它们的味道相似，但由于使用了不同的气味和香料，它们的味道截然不同。
If you’re really interested in the science, look into the trigeminal senses which detect chemical irritants in the mouth and throat as well as the temperature and texture, which are also very important to the overall flavor perception.
如果你真的对风味科学感兴趣，看看三叉感官，它能探测口腔和喉咙中的化学刺激物以及温度和质地，它们对整体的味道感知也很重要。
 
Everybody has different thresholds of flavor. Some people think that something that is too salty is not salty enough. The same can be true with regard to any of the typical tastes offered in flavor. What’s important to remember when it comes to flavor is that your audience can vary. In order to establish a baseline you will need to have a substantial test group to determine the undeniable consistencies in flavor preference and scope. This can have tremendous impact on the marketing of a food or beverage product. For example, if a food item is perceived as being salty, people that are health conscious may avoid it when in fact the salt content is considerably less than some other products on the market. If something has the flavor perception of tasting too sweet, a similar result may occur. The nutritional value of a product will often be perceived by its flavor rather than by its ingredients. It is a very powerful psychological motivator that will affect the bottom line for food and beverage providers.
每个人都有不同的风味阈值。有些人认为太咸的东西不够咸。对于香精中的任何一种典型滋味来说，情况也是如此。当谈到风味时，重要的是要记住，你的受众是不同的。为了建立一个基线，你需要有一个庞大的测试小组来确定风味偏好和范围的不可否认的一致性。这可以对食品或饮料产品的营销产生巨大的影响。例如，如果一种食物被认为是咸的，有健康意识的人可能会避免食用它，而实际上它的含盐量比市场上其他一些产品要少得多。如果某样东西尝起来太甜，可能会出现类似的结果。一种产品的营养价值通常是通过它的风味而不是它的成分来判断的。这是一种非常强大的心理激励因素，将影响食品和饮料供应商的底线。