Source: PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to
LINKING FOOD COMPOSITION TO FOOD CHOICE AND NUTRITION: UNDERSTANDING CONSUMER PERCEPTION AND ATTITUDES FROM A COMPOSITIONAL, FUNCTIONAL, AND SENSORY POINT OF VIEW
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
NEW
Funding Source
HATCH
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1013412
Grant No.
(N/A)
Project No.
PEN04624
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jul 26, 2017
Project End Date
Jun 30, 2022
Grant Year
(N/A)
Project Director
Hopfer, HE.
Recipient Organization
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
208 MUELLER LABORATORY
UNIVERSITY PARK,PA 16802
Performing Department
Food Science
Non Technical Summary
In light of food abundance the US nevertheless faces a nutritional crisis: despite dietary recommendations and nutritional guidelines many Americans do not consume enough vegetables, fruits, dairy, while exceeding the recommended levels of added sugars, saturated fats, sodium, and total calorie intake (NHANES 2007-2010). Besides providing nutrients, fruits and vegetables are also an important source of plant secondary metabolites. These compounds have a considerable effect on human perception, human health and well-being.While a focus on the functional quality of foods and food ingredients beyond "adequate nutritional effects" is clearly important, foods and food ingredients must also appeal to consumers with regards to their sensory properties, i.e., flavor, aroma, color, and palatability. As food choice is the result of both external cues and individual preferences, informed by previous experiences and genetic make-up of the human being, it is critical to understand how food composition, function, nutrition, and sensory link to individual perception, acceptance, and intake. For many foods and food ingredients the link between food choice and food function is unclear, and successful strategies to reveal these relationships require study of the complete chain, from the plant to the food and as perceived by the consumer. Additionally, the impact of every step from seed to product in the supply chain on composition, function, nutrition, and sensory properties of foods and food ingredients must be understood. Numerous strategies along the food processing chain to change composition, function, nutrition, and sensory can be employed, however, it is unclear how these changes could be introduced through plant breeding. We are just beginning to understand the complex interactions between plant genes and the environment on secondary metabolites, many of which have physical, nutritional, and sensory food functions. Therefore, breeding has the potential to provide new cultivars that combine improved flavor and nutritional value of vegetables and fruits, through connecting plant breeding, molecular biology, metabolomics and human sensory science in an interdisciplinary manner. Additionally, for many food components the structure-function or activity relationship is unclear, as their impact in a mixture, such as a food, might be above or below the expected impact based on their individual response. These complex interactions of individual components in foods and their combined impact on the function, nutrition, and sensory properties of foods necessitates a holistic evaluation, in real foods and beyond simple model system. Through the combination of both in vitro and in vivo studies the human response to individual and mixtures of food components in real foods will elucidate how these mixture effects impact human perception, food choice and intake. In summary, this causal chain can be depicted as follows: Plants produce metabolites that cause sensory perception which in turn influences Food Choice, and ultimately impacts Nutrition & Health.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
60%
Developmental
10%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
7015010309045%
2045010200040%
5035010209015%
Knowledge Area
204 - Plant Product Quality and Utility (Preharvest); 503 - Quality Maintenance in Storing and Marketing Food Products; 701 - Nutrient Composition of Food;

Subject Of Investigation
5010 - Food;

Field Of Science
2090 - Statistics, econometrics, and biometrics; 3090 - Sensory science (human senses); 2000 - Chemistry;
Goals / Objectives
The goals of this project are to develop methods and tools to link food choice to food function by studying the impact of foodcomposition, and sensory properties on perception, consumer acceptability and food intake. Specific objectives of this projectsare:1) To link individual perceptual differences, preferences and intake to the composition, and sensory properties of foods and foodingredients with human sensory methods.2) To determine the impact of crop genetics on food composition, nutrition, and sensory, and to study the combined effects ofcrop genetics, growing conditions, postharvest practices and food processing on these properties.3) To study the complex interactions of individual food ingredients on the overall perception, nutritient content, and acceptabilityof food.
Project Methods
The project will employ novel and established scientific methods to achieve all its objectives, through a combinatory approach of:1) affective, analytical and mixed methods of human sensory and consumer science to elucidate the impact of foods and food ingredients on consumer acceptability, human perception, food choice, and intake.2) chemical and physical analysis techniques such as chromatography, mass spectrometry, spectroscopy, and rheology, to elucidate the compositional, functional, and sensory drivers.3) Uni- and multivariate statistics to link the data and inform future experiments.

Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience:Activities supported by this project reach the following target audiences: (i) stakeholders involved in research, development,and marketing of new and existing food products and ingredients, (ii) researchers, scientists, and educators involved inresearch and dissemination of information related to linking food composition to food choice and nutrition, and (iii) the general public who wish to make informed decisions regarding food choice. Changes/Problems:The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted our research, especially our in-person human subjects research that has been halted since March of 2020. At this point in time it is uncertain at what point and in what format human subjects research will be able to resume in a non-virtual format. As feasible, certain projects were moved to online data collection, while for others we are exploring at-home testing and outsourcing to commercial providers. For non-human research, limitations on number of people in the laboratory at the same time, are affecting project timelines as well. We have adapted protocols for work in the laboratory that keeps everyone safe, healthy, and productive. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?One-on-one mentoring and training was provided to five graduate students and five undergraduate students in the fields of sensory andconsumer science and flavor chemistry. In addition, graduate students and the PI attended and participated in scientific conferences with oral and poster presentations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results from the project have been disseminated to different target audiences: To the general public through experiential learning activities and outreach events on chocolate making, sensory andconsumer science, and flavor chemistry - most of these activities have been conducted in a remote format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To the scientific communities through peer-reviewed articles, poster and oral presentations, and editorial service. To undergraduate and graduate students through lectures, research mentoring and committee work. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are planning on continuing our experiments and disseminating results to both the general and scientific communities through research papers, talks, workshops, and short courses.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Our main activities are focused on several areas:(1) understanding the importance of flavor along the cacao supply chain, from tree to bean to bar to consumer,(2) utilizing taste-aroma cross-modal interactions as a sugar-reduction strategy for dairy drinks, (3)elucidating external and compositional factors affecting wine flavor perception, and(4) modelling flavor release from novel starch-flavor inclusion complexes with instrumental and human sensory methods. The following experiments are ongoing, with the following results available: 1) We could show that significant differences in fat content, fatty acid composition, volatile and non-volatile composition exist across cocoa cultivars, grown in the same location and different seasons. We further foundthat these cultivars respond differentially to environmental conditions, as assessed over three different harvest seasons. We are continuing characterizing these differences, linking compositional changes to differences in human perception. (Goals 1 and 2) The same project also studied consumer perception of fine flavor and craft chocolate. Using a mixed-methods approach, we found that consumers segment chocolate products in terms of quality based upon usage occasion rather than cost or other factors, and use segmentation, price, availability, and packaging as quality determinants. They desire credence attributes that convey trust and seek out experience attributes such as utility and/or joy. (Goal 3) 2) We are building on our prior results that perceived sweetness can be significantly modulated by a sweet-smelling aromaand are currently testing these robust effects in a matrix with more ingredients.Results thus far address goals1 and 3, as we link changes in sensory perception of food-relevant attributes (e.g., sweet taste, vanilla flavor, cocoa flavor) as well as liking and acceptability to systematic changes in food composition.(Goals 1 and 3) 3) We were able to determine the impact of regionality and cultivar on consumer perception of PA wines, through analytical sensory science (descriptive analysis) and through an online consumer conjoint analysis experiment. We found that consumers who have tasted a lesser known hybrid variety before prefer the presence of that varietal name on the wine label over a more generic "white wine" label text. These results address specific goals 1 and 3,as we study how wine compositional factors affect perception and how external information presented on a wine label affects consumer perception of lesser known wine varieties and wine regions.(Goals 1 and 3) 4) Novel starch-flavor inclusion complexes are characterized for their ability to deliver flavor agents over a longer period of time, extending flavor perception, as measured by in vivo human sensory and in vitro instrumental methodology. Using two different flavor compounds, we were able to show that flavor release differed substantially from the control treatment, but also that flavor release is compound-dependent. We are now studying how individual variability in saliva composition impacts this flavor release over time, as well as the application of these starch inclusion complexes in other foods. These results address Goals 1 and 3, as these starch inclusion complexes could be used as novel flavor delivery systems. Understanding the temporal release mechanism and the effect of the release kinetics on human perception is criticalin assessing the potential of these complexes in food.(Goals 1 and 3)

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: JM Gaby, AJ Bakke, AN Baker, H Hopfer & JE Hayes (2020) Individual Differences in Thresholds and Consumer Preferences for Rotundone Added to Red Wine. Nutrients 12, 2522; DOI:10.3390/nu12092522
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: CK Tanabe, J Nelson, RB Boulton, SE Ebeler, & H Hopfer (2020) The Use of Macro, Micro, and Trace Elemental Profiles to Differentiate Commercial Single Vineyard Pinot noir Wines at a Sub-Regional Level. Molecules, 25, 2552; DOI:10.3390/molecules25112552
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: BJ Chrisfield, H Hopfer, & RJ Elias (2020) Impact of Copper Fungicide Use in Hop Production on the Total Metal Content and Stability of Wort and Dry-Hopped Beer. Beverages, 6(3), 48; DOI:10.3390/beverages6030048
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Submitted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Hopfer, H. Analytical Methods: Gas Chromatography. Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences, 3rd Edition, Elsevier.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: B Chrisfield, BK Gugino, H Hopfer, & RJ Elias (2019) Effects of copper-based fungicides on Pennsylvania hop quality. 258th National Meeting & Exposition, American Chemical Society, San Diego, CA
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: S Keller, A Harner, A, M Centinari, H Hopfer, & RJ Elias (2019) Defining Typicity of Pennsylvania-grown Gruner Veltliner Wines using Instrumental and Human Sensory Methods. 258th National Meeting & Exposition, American Chemical Society, San Diego, CA
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Al Brown, AM Wiedemer, GR Ziegler, & H Hopfer (2020) The impact of cultivar, harvest, and processing on plant metabolites vital to flavor in Theobroma cacao. 260th ACS National Meeting, ACS, Virtual Meeting.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: H Hopfer, & SE Ebeler (2020) The food of the gods - the chemistry from cacao bean to chocolate bar. 260th ACS National Meeting, ACS, Virtual Meeting.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: KC Racine, BD Wiersma, LE Griffin, LA Essenmacher, AH Lee, H Hopfer, JD Lambert, AC Stewart, & AP Neilson (2020) Flavanol Polymerization is a Superior Predictor of a Glucosidase Inhibitory Activity Compared to Flavanol or Total Polyphenol Concentrations in Cocoas Prepared by Variations in Controlled Fermentation and Roasting of the Same Raw Cocoa Beans. Antioxidants, 8, 635; DOI:10.3390/antiox8120635
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: AR Poveromo, & H Hopfer (2019) Temporal Check-All-That-Apply (TCATA) Reveals Matrix Interaction Effects on Flavor Perception in a Model Wine Matrix. Foods, 8, 641; DOI:10.3390/foods8120641
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: L Elgaard, LA Mielby, H Hopfer, & DV Byrne (2019) A Comparison of Two Sensory Panels Trained with Different Feedback Calibration Range Specifications via Sensory Description of Five Beers. Foods, 8(11), 534; DOI:10.3390/foods8110534
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: KC Racine, BD Wiersma, LE Griffin, LA Essenmacher, AH Lee, H Hopfer, JD Lambert, AC Stewart, & AP Neilson (2020) Mean degree of flavanol polymerization is a superior predictor of a glucosidase inhibitory activity compared to flavanol or polyphenol concentrations in cocoas produced by controlled fermentation and roasting. 260th ACS National Meeting, ACS, Virtual Meeting.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: JD Lambert, TN Seymore, KC Racine, AL Brown, GR Ziegler, AP Neilson, & H Hopfer (2020) Effect of genetics and post-harvest processing on the in vitro anti-inflammatory effects of cocoa. 260th ACS National Meeting, ACS, Virtual Meeting.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: AC Riak, & H Hopfer (2020) Optimizing acceptability of sugar- and sodium-reduced chocolate milk via cross-modal Interactions. ADSA Annual Meeting 2020, ADSA, West Palm Beach, FL - postponed until 2021 due to Covid-19.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: IM Gutierrez, H Hopfer, & JD Lambert (2020) Phytochemical composition and bioactivity of clove (Syzygium aromaticum) oil and post-distillation biomass extract. 260th ACS National Meeting, ACS, Virtual Meeting.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: M Donohue (2020) Understanding Regional Sensory Profiles of White Wines in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania State University, MS Thesis.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: AL Brown, AJ Bakke, & H Hopfer (2020) Understanding American premium chocolate consumer perception of craft chocolate and desirable product attributes using focus groups and projective mapping. Plos ONE. accepted 9/22/2020.


Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Activities supported by this project reach the following target audiences: (i) stakeholders involved in research, development, and marketing of new and exisiting food products and ingredients, (ii) researchers, scientists, and educators involved in research and dissemination of information related to linking food composition to food choice and nutrition, and (iii) the general public who wish to make informed decisions regarding food choice. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?One-on-one mentoring and training was provided to 2 graduate students and 3 undergraduate students in the fields of sensory & consumer science and flavor chemistry. In addition, two graduate students and the PI attended and participated in a major scientific conference for Sensory & Consumer Science with poster presentations and organization of a scientificworkshopOne-on-one mentoring and training was provided to 4 graduate students and 5 undergraduate students in the fields of sensory & consumer science and flavor chemistry. In addition, four graduate students and the PI attended and participated in several major scientific conferences and presented oral and poster presentations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results from the project have been disseminated to different target audiences: to 8-12-year old girls participating in a summer science camp in a half-day experential learning activity on "How to make chocolate from bean to bar", the scientific community through two poster presentations (Brown & Hopfer (2017) I've got the golden ticket" - consumer perception of premium chocolate; Wang & Hopfer (2017) Dose-response relationship of perceived sweetness and vanilla flavour in dairy products) and one workshop organization (Mielby et al. (2017) The relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic factors for perception and behavior towards food - what really matters in our sensory response?) at the Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium in Providence, RI, and undergraduate and graduate students in a guest lecture on data visualization and descriptive statistics. Results from the project have been disseminated to different target audiences, including the general public through a Science Pub talk (The Science of Chocolate, Science Untapped, Big Springs Spirits Science Pub Night, Feb 2019) and hosting a national science TV show (PBS Nova, June 2019; to be aired in fall 2020), as well as thescientific communitythrough poster and oral presentations, peer-review and editorial service, and undergraduate and graduate students through guest lectures, research mentoring, and committee work. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are planning on continuing our experiments, as described above, and disseminating results to both the generaland scientific communities through research papers, talks, workshops, and short courses.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Our main activities are focused on several areas - (1) understanding the importance of flavor along the cacao supply chain, from tree to bean to bar, (2) utilizing taste-aroma cross-modal interactions as a sugar-reduction strategy for dairy drinks, (3) elucidating external and compositional factors affecting wine flavor perception, and (4) modelling flavor release from novel starch-flavor inclusion complexes with instrumental and human sensory methods. The following experiments are still on-going, with first results available: 1) We could show that significant differences in fat content, fatty acid composition, and volatile composition exist across cocoa cultivars, grown in the same location and same harvest season, and that these cultivars respond differentially to environmental conditions, as assessed over 3 different harvest seasons. We are continuing characterization of these differences, linking compositional changes to differences in human perception. These results address objective 2, linking crop genetics, growing conditions, postharvest practices, and food processing on food composition, nutrition, and sensory properties. 2) Using dose-response modeling, we were able to show that perceived sweetness can be significantly modulated by a sweet-smelling aroma, potentially allowing an added sugar reduction of 30%. We were also able to show that this effect is not a methodological artefact, but rather robust. Ongoing experiments are expanding these results by including more ingredients. These results address objectives 1 and 3, as we show that food acceptability is can be maintained when changing food ingredients due to the presence of complex, perceptual interactions. Such perceptual interactions can be used to formulate more healthy food products (e.g., less added sugar, sodium, etc.) while maintaining consumer acceptability and perception. 3) We were able to show that dynamic sensory methods, such as temporal check-all-that-apply (TCATA) can explain temporal changes in wine perception, and further, that these changes can be traced back to individual compositional factors in a model system. In addition, compositional factors and interactions differed in their effect between static sensory evaluation with descriptive analysis (DA) and TCATA, indicating that a complete characterization of complex food perception requires the combination of both methods. Further, Pennsylvania commercial white wines demonstrate sensory regionality to a certain extent, where wines from different PA regions were characterized by certain sensory fingerprints. The effects were larger for a V. vinifera cultivar compared to a hybrid one and demonstrate that PA wines could be marketed based on regional sensory profiles. In a next step, we are studying the impact of regionality and cultivar on consumer perception of PA wines. These results address objectives 1-3, as we study how wine compositional factors affect perception, not just in a static, single-time measurement, but rather over the duration of consumption. This is of importance, as food consumption does not occur in a brief moment, but rather has a temporal component to it; measuring the effect of this temporal effects is thus critical to understand flavor perception and consumer acceptability. Further, we are able to show that growing environment as well as enological practices are important factors that determine the sensory properties of wines from PA. 4) Novel starch-flavor inclusion complexes are characterized for their ability to deliver flavor agents over a longer period in time, extending flavor perception, as measured by in vivo human sensory and in vitro instrumental methodology. Using two different flavor compounds, we were able to show that flavor release differed substantially from the control treatment, but also that flavor release is compound-dependent. Additional experiments are studying the human impact on flavor release, as well as application of these starch inclusion complexes in other foods. These results address objectives 1 and 3, as these starch inclusion complexes could be used as novel flavor delivery systems. Understanding the release mechanism and the effect of the release kinetics on human perception is critical in assessing the potential of these complexes in food.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: G Wang, AJ Bakke, JE Hayes, H Hopfer (2019) Demonstrating cross-modal enhancement in a real food with a modified ABX test. Food Quality and Preference, 77:206-213, doi: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2019.05.007
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: AR Poveromo (2019) The Impact of Wine Matrix Components on the Static and Temporal Perception of Sensory Attributes in a White, Hybrid Model Wine. The Pennsylvania State University, MS Thesis.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: A Sliwinski, Hopfer H, GR Ziegler (2019) Elucidating differences in phenolic profile between tef (Eragrostis tef) varieties using multivariate analyses. Cereal Chemistry, doi: 10.1002/cche.10215
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: L Shi, H Hopfer, GR Ziegler, L Kong (2019) Starch-menthol inclusion complex: structure and release kinetics. Food Hydrocolloids, 105183, doi: 10.1016/j.foodhyd.2019.105183
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: T Hamada, AL Brown, H Hopfer, GR Ziegler (2019) Flavor and Mouthfeel of Pseudo-Cocoa Liquor: Effects of Polyphenols, Fat Content, and Training Method. Journal of Sensory Studies, accepted. doi: 10.1111/joss.12541
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: CK Tanabe, J Nelson, H Hopfer, SE Ebeler(2019) Changes in the elemental profiles of grapes and wines from the vineyard through processing. 258th ACS National Meeting & Exposition, San Diego, CA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: CK Tanabe, J Nelson, SE Ebeler, H Hopfer (2019) Two-year study of elemental differences in Pinot Noir wines from different neighborhoods within one AVA. 258th ACS National Meeting & Exposition, San Diego, CA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: L Shi, L Kong, GR Ziegler, H Hopfer (2018) Amylose-guest inclusion complexes for extended release of cyclic organic compounds. 256th ACS National Meeting & Exposition, Boston, MA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Submitted Year Published: 2019 Citation: H Hopfer, AL Brown, P Dolan, A Wiedemer (2019) Variability of cocoa metabolites due to cacao genetics, growing conditions, and post-harvest processing: The case of cocoa butter. AOAC Annual Meeting & Exposition, Denver, CO.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: M Donohue, H Hopfer (2019) A sense of place: exploring sensory regionality of commercial Pennsylvania white wines using sensory techniques. 13th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, Edinburgh, UK.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: JL Goza, GR Ziegler, L Kong, H Hopfer (2019) Sensory and instrumental characterization of novel amylose-menthol inclusion complexes for extended flavor release in chewing gum. 13th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, Edinburgh, UK.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: AR Poveromo, H Hopfer (2019) Sensory in motion: Utilizing a dynamic sensory technique to connect compositional factors to a changing sensory profile. 13th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, Edinburgh, UK.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: AL Brown, GR Ziegler, H Hopfer (2019) Impact of total fat content on the sensory profile of eleven Theobroma cacao cultivars. Cocotea 2019 Conference, Bremen, Germany.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: TY Hamada, AL Brown, H Hopfer, GR Ziegler (2019). Flavor of Pseudo-Cocoa Liquor: Effects of Polyphenols, Fat Content, and Training Method. Cocotea 2019 Conference, Bremen, Germany.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: H Hopfer, M Donohue, G Wang (2019) Is wine quality in the mouth of the beholder? Evaluation of wine quality and regionality with trained panelists, winemakers and consumers. 17th Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference, Adelaide, Australia.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: G Wang (2018) Taste-Aroma Interactions as a Sugar Reduction Strategy in Flavored Milk. The Pennsylvania State University, MS Thesis.


Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Activities supported by this project reach the following target audiences: (i) stakeholders involved in research, development, and marketing of new and exisitng food products and ingredients, (ii) researchers, scientists, and educators involved in research and dissemination of information related to linking food composition to food choice and nutrition, and (iii) the general public who wish to make informed decisions regarding food choice. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Dr. Hopfer has provided one-on-one mentoring and training opportunities to 7graduate studentsand 6 undergraduate students,in the fields ofsensory & consumer science and flavor chemistry. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results from the project have been disseminated to different target audiences: to 8-12-year old girls participating in a summer science camp in a half-day experential learning activity on "How to make chocolate from bean to bar", the scientific community through 2 open access peer-reviewed articles, 6 poster presentations,one workshop organization, and undergraduate and graduate students through lectures on data visualization, desctriptive statistics, sensory & consumer science, and flavor chemistry. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are planning on continuing our experiments, as outlined above. In addition, new experiments will be initiatied to study how starch-guest complexes modulate flavor perception. Dr. Hopfer's research grouppublished research findings in open-access peer-reviewed articlesand presented at scientific meetings, including the 12th Pangborn Sensory Science Conference, the 2018 ASEV-Eastern Section Meeting, and the 2018 SSP Meeting. Results from research activities were used to submit research proposals to the National Dairy Council, the PA Wine Marketing Board, and USDA-ELI.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Our main activities addressing the project's objectives can be summarized as follows: Understanding the importance of cocoa flavor along the supply chain, from farmer to end consumer Studying cross-modal interactions in a dairy drink Understanding the impact of product expertise on flavor perception and appreciation Linking geographic differences to perceivable sensory fingerprints Members of the research group were able to show that cocoa cultivars, grown in the same location and time of year, and processed in the same way, differed significantly in fat content and composition, volatile and non-volatile profiles, and sensory profiles. These results address objective 1-2. Additionally, the importance of flavor for end-consumers was investigated; it was found that consumers eat chocolate products for a multitude of reasons, influenced by gender, mood, and personality.Men categorize chocolates based on purchase/eating occasions, while women use more similar words when they describe chocolates. These findings address research objective 1. In addressing objective 1 and 3, we demonstrated synergistic cross-modal interactions between sucrose and vanilla aroma, leading to an enhancement of perceived sweetness in a dairy drink. This research indicates that sweetness perception can be increased by the addition of an aroma compound, without changing the sweetener concentration. The magnitude of this effect was dependent on the task, specifically, the mental strategy adopted by human participants. When a non-scaling approach was used, i.e., asking participants to match a vanilla-sugar milk to different sugar-only milks, a significant portion of participants matched the vanilla-sugar milk to a sugar-only milk higher in sugar than was present in the vanilla-sugar milk. When asked to rate, among other attributes, the sweetness of the vanilla-sugar milk, ratings were not statistically different from the sugar-only milk. In another study, we found that storage conditions affect the aroma of roasted coffee beans differently, dependent on roasting treatment, but not coffee knowledge and expertise. Evaluating blind duplicates of coffee beans of 2 different roast levels and 3 different storage treatments (fresh vs 9 weeks in a freezer vs. 9 weeks at room temperature), coffee consumers perceived the dark roast coffee stored at room temperature as significantly different from all other bean samples.These results address objectives 1-3, showing that common recommendations for storing coffee beans outside a freezer are not sufficient in maintaining the fresh-roasted coffee aroma, and that these changes are perceivable by coffee consumers of all consumption habits. A first year of surveying commercial PA white wines demonstrated that wines from geographic proximity may share more sensory properties, thus, are perceived as more similarly. The effect was larger for the studied Vitis vinifera wines (Riesling) than for the interspecific hybrid wines (Vidal blanc). On-going experiments are aiming at validating these results with a second year of data.This study addressed research objectives 1-2.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Cotter, A.; Hopfer, H. The Effects of Storage Temperature on the Aroma of Whole Bean Arabica Coffee Evaluated by Coffee Consumers and HS-SPME-GC-MS. Beverages 2018, 4(3), 68; https://doi.org/10.3390/beverages4030068. http://www.mdpi.com/2306-5710/4/3/68
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Wang, G.; Hayes, J.; Ziegler, G.; Roberts, R.; Hopfer, H. Dose-Response Relationships for Vanilla Flavor and Sucrose in Skim Milk: Evidence of Synergy. Beverages 2018, 4(4), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/beverages4040073. http://www.mdpi.com/2306-5710/4/4/73
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Donohue, M.; Wang, G.; Hopfer, H. Detecting Regionality of Pennsylvanian White Wines with Consumers and Wine Professionals. American Society of Enology & Viticulture - Eastern Section 43rd Annual Conference, King of Prussia, PA, 7/9-7/11
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Poveromo, A.; Donohue, M.; Centinari, M.; Hopfer, H. Impact of Two Frost Avoidance Strategies on Chemical and Sensory Wine Quality - First Year Results. American Society of Enology & Viticulture - Eastern Section 43rd Annual Conference, King of Prussia, PA, 7/9-7/11
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Wang, G.; Donohue, M.; Hopfer, H. Characterization of Wine Regionality in Pennsylvanian White Wines with a Trained Sensory Panel. American Society of Enology & Viticulture - Eastern Section 43rd Annual Conference, King of Prussia, PA, 7/9-7/11
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Mielby, L.A.; Bryne, D.V.; Jensen, S.B.; Fiszman, B.P.; Andersen, B.V.; Kidmose, U.; Hopfer, H. The relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic factors for perception and behavior towards food - what really matters in our sensory response? 12th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, Providence, RI, 8/20-24
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Wang, G.; Hopfer, H. Dose-response relationship of perceived sweetness and vanilla flavour in dairy products. 12th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, Providence, RI, 8/20-24
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Brown, A.; Hopfer, H. "I've got the golden ticket" - consumer perception of premium chocolate. 12th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, Providence, RI, 8/20-24
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Brown, A.; Hopfer, H. These dont even look like chocolate wrap-pers, they look like tea containers!Consumer perception of craft chocolate. 2018 Society of Sensory Professionals Conference, Cleveland, OH, 9/26-28


Progress 07/26/17 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:The following target audiences have been reached through activities covered under this project: 1) summer science camp (organized by Discovery Space) for 10-14 year old girls: How to make chocolate from bean to bar. 2) workshop at 2017 Pangborn conference for sensory science professionals: The relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic factors for perception and behavior towards food - what really matters in our sensory response? 3) guest lecture in FDSC 411 for undergraduate food science students: Descriptive Statistics and Graphical Analysis Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?One-on-one mentoring and training was provided to 2 graduate students and 3 undergraduate students in the fields of sensory & consumer science and flavor chemistry. In addition, two graduate students and the PI attended and participated in a major scientific conference for Sensory & Consumer Science with poster presentations and organization of a scientific workshop. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results from the project have been disseminated to different target audiences: to 8-12-year old girls participating in a summer science camp ina half-day experential learning activity on "How to make chocolate from bean to bar", the scientific community through two poster presentations (Brown & Hopfer (2017) I've got the golden ticket" - consumer perception of premium chocolate; Wang & Hopfer (2017) Dose-response relationship of perceived sweetness and vanilla flavour in dairy products) and one workshop organization (Mielby et al. (2017) The relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic factors for perception and behavior towards food - what really matters in our sensory response?) at the Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium in Providence, RI, and undergraduate and graduate students in a guest lecture on data visualization and descriptive statistics. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are planning on continuing our experiments, as described above.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Linking human flavor perception to composition and food function is a critical step in ensuring foods of high quality and acceptability that are safe and nutritious. As food composition, and thus, the perceptual properties of foods, are determined by numerous factors along the process chain, it is essential to study the contribution of each of those factors, from seed to final product. In addition, human perception of food is dependent on the mixture effects of individual food components, thus, food needs to be assessed as a whole, in addition to the individual parts, to account for these mixture effects. Our main activities are focused on two areas - (1) understanding the imapct of cacao cultivar on human flavor perception, and (2) studying the taste-aroma interactions in a dairy drink. The following experiments have been started and are still on-going, with some first results available: 1) significant differences in fat content, fatty acid composition, and volatile composition of cocoa cultivars, grown in the same location and time of year. Ongoing experiments will determine how these significant differences impact human flavor perception in cocoa, using a trained human sensory panel. 2) significant effects were found for perceived sweetness when a sweet-smelling aroma was added to a sucrose-containing dairy drink. Current experiments will determine the magnitude of this effect, and whether individuals differ in their effect sizes.

Publications