Sensory-led reformulation strategy to improve the nutritional and sensory quality of food

Several trends are influencing food security and the sustainability of the agri-food system, including climate change, urbanization, population growing and aging. Urbanization is accompanied by a transition in dietary patterns. Typically, diets are becoming higher in salt, fat and sugar and are, in general, more energy-dense with consequent increase in overweight and obesity and related non-communicable diseases. Several strategies have been suggested to mitigate this scenario, including food reformulation to obtain products that meet both nutritional requirements and consumer’s acceptance. International guidelines suggest to reduce saturated fats, sugar and salt/sodium in food products however altering the composition of a food or beverage may impact substantially on consumer perception and overall acceptance. In this context, sensory science may play a crucial role contributing to food products optimization also considering the effect of multimodal integration of chemosensory cues to induce cross-modal perceptual interactions.

The research will involve different activities as reported below.

• Assessment of the sensory properties of food products reformulated and improved for their nutritional profile (e.g. reduction of unwanted ingredients such as salt, sugar, fat or addition of desired ingredients such as fibers, bioactives). 
• Eventually consider the effect of multimodal integration of chemosensory cues to induce perceptual interactions (for instance, assess the ability of an added odorant, e.g. vanilla, to enhance the perception of a tastant, e.g. sugar).
• Assessment of consumer acceptance of the above mentioned reformulated food products considering different population targets.
   
  The collaboration with companies interested in providing food products and/or beverages to be reformulated is wished.

• Better understanding of the role of cross-modal interactions as well as individuals’ sensory perception in food reformulation in order to obtain fat-, sugar- and/or salt-reduced food products.
• Optimization of food formulations sensory quality contributing to meet nutritional requirements.
• Contribute to the creation of new market prospects for food companies by delivering products improved from a nutritional point view but still accepted by consumers in terms of sensory properties.