People who order their Buffalo wings especially spicy and sometimes find them to be too "hot," should choose milk to reduce the burn, according to Penn State researchers, who also suggest it does not matter if it is whole or skim.
Adding vanilla to sweetened milk makes consumers think the beverage is sweeter, allowing the amount of added sugar to be reduced, according to Penn State researchers, who will use the concept to develop a reduced-sugar chocolate milk for the National School Lunch Program.
Food's texture affects whether it is eaten, liked or rejected, according to Penn State researchers, who say some people are better at detecting even minor differences in consistency because their tongues can perceive particle sizes.
Consumer preference or aversion to wines made from native grapes — such as Concord, Niagara and Catawba, which are mostly grown in Eastern North America — may depend on early exposure to the fruits' sweet, ultra "grapey" taste and aroma, according to researchers who conducted sensory tests with wine drinkers in Pennsylvania and California.
James (Jim) P. Zallie and Helen Zallie, of Lake Forest, Illinois, have pledged $20,000 each year over the next five years to enhance research in the field of sensory science within the Department of Food Science in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.
A new endowment in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences will leave a good taste in the mouths of graduate students studying one particular aspect of food science. Gregory Ziegler, professor of food science, has pledged a total of $25,000 to establish the John and Jane Ziegler Graduate Award in Sensory Science.
The term umami was coined in 1908 by Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda, who identified the chemical basis for the flavor. The taste itself "is the meaty, brothy, savory sensation we perceive from certain amino acids." Food scientist John Hayes, director of Penn State's Sensory Evaluation Center, offers additional insight.
How people perceive and taste alcohol depends on genetic factors, and that influences whether they "like" and consume alcoholic beverages, according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.
The taste of common sugar substitutes is often described as being much more intense than sugar, but participants in a recent study indicated that these non-nutritive sugar substitutes are no sweeter than the real thing, according to Penn State food scientists.
Sensory technologists at Penn State use a range of information technologies to study the science of personal taste.
Although the Steelers and Eagles didn’t make it to the Super Bowl this year, Pennsylvania and Penn State will still be represented on game day — on your plate. And more likely than not, Penn State experts have had a hand in developing, or evolving, many of the Keystone State’s famous finger foods.
As a part of a larger study by sensory scientist John Hayes aimed at sorting out the welter of genetics, biology, and personality factors involved in chemesthesis, or what Hayes calls all the non-taste stuff that goes on in the mouth, graduate student Byrnes examined the possible relationship between the love of capsaicin, chili’s active ingredient, and aspects of personality.
