THE FUTURE OF FOOD The Science of Yummy

The Pleasure Principle

Ultimately, the flavor industry is in the business of decoding human enjoyment. In animal and human studies, flavor preference appears to be determined primarily by experience. At its simplest, it's a matter of conditioning. By pairing a positive stimulus with a flavor, the flavor becomes better-liked. "All other things being equal, familiar flavors are liked better than unfamiliar flavors," explains Marcia Pelchat, a researcher at Monell. "If you could ask a total stranger one question that would tell you more than anything else about what they like to eat, you would ask them where they grew up."

Flavor science is hoping to create a connection between consumers and their food as strong as that between a child and his mom's cooking. Deciphering the emotional connection to food involves not just chemistry but neurobiology, personal history and genetics. "Aromas can bring a sensation of love or fear or memory that no other sense can. That's an area that is just ripe for exploration," says Marianne Gillette, vice president of technical competencies and platforms at spice and flavor manufacturer McCormick.

In the long term, the flavor business hopes to be able to better target particular tastes according to locale but also to reach consumers according to their demographic group-children versus preteens; men versus women. "In 1988 we might have had a request for a flavor of a Chandler strawberry with fresh ripe notes," says Marie Wright, a flavor-creation manager at IFF. "Today the request will be for a Chandler strawberry with fresh ripe notes targeted at baby boomers that also gives a feeling of refreshment and invigoration." Food companies want to be able to provide each of those individuals with a perfectly tailored, emotionally resonant strawberry flavor.

Back in the lab at IFF, Dewis continues to feed the Sepbox to identify the flavors in some of our favorite foods: raspberry jam, chocolate cookies, steak. But despite all the work the company has done to translate the unconscious connection with food into scientific formulas, Wright acknowledges that there's a mystical quality to taste, one that science hasn't yet touched. After devoting years to flavor research, she still believes that the palate knows best. "The worst thing you can do," she says, "is get hung up on analytical data."

For all the precision that the Sepbox provides in identifying the molecules, and for all that flavor scientists have achieved in creating delicious flavors, until every smell receptor is characterized and the electronic nose is perfected, the most sensitive flavor detector is still the one attached to your head, and only it knows what foods you like best.

Tamara Holt is a cookbook author. She lives in New York City, where she writes about food, health and nutrition.