Olfaction

Science programme: Sensory & consumer science

Our sense of smell plays an important role in the sensory evaluation of food products. The majority of what we perceive as flavour isn’t actually detected by our mouths, but by our noses. While technologies such as electronic noses are continually becoming more advanced, there is no equivalent to the human nose in terms of sensitivity and specificity. The number of odours humans are able to detect is virtually infinite.

The majority of our flavour research is focussed on the volatile components of fruit and fruit products. We work with flavour chemists in order to understand how our sensory data, obtained through either trained panellists or consumers, relates to data acquired through chemical analysis, and vice versa.  One of our recent projects involved volatile compounds that are naturally present in kiwifruit being added to a kiwifruit pulp in order to determine consumers’ detection thresholds for these compounds.

Currently HortResearch’s Molecular Olfaction group is studying insects and their olfaction system (see the Molecular olfaction page) . Our collaboration with the Molecular Olfaction group will aid us in a better understanding of the human olfaction system.  We are attempting to identify individuals and populations with different abilities to detect fruit flavours.  Through this research we anticipate better understanding of the role genetics may play in the detection of odour molecules.