Presenter

Mr Felipe Reinoso Carvalho - ETRO, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and KU Leuven [Email]

Abstract

There is a common agreement among researchers about the involvement of multiple senses when
flavours are being experienced. In particular, there is a growing consensus that the sound and/or
noise in those places where we eat and drink can somehow affect our tasting experience.
The research summarised here assesses the influence of sound on flavour judgment. We
hypothesise that it is possible to design soundscapes that can have a significant influence on tasting
experiences, by altering the way people judge taste and flavour attributes, and by adding hedonic
value to foods and drinks. We focus on the sounds that may be part of those places where we eat/
drink, but not particularly the sounds that derive from our interaction with food. The core of this work is
based on explorative behavioural experiments, involving mainly the interaction of sound and flavour,
using chocolates or beers as tasting stimuli.
Our main findings show that, under specific circumstances, sound can have a significant influence on
the way we experience foods and drinks. In particular, we validate more than one prominent line of
work in the existent similar literature. We bring consistent new contributions into this field, such as the
possibility of producing sounds in order to influence the judgment of never- before-approached flavour
attributes. We suggest that people may be willing to pay more for multisensory experiences involving
sound and flavour congruency. We also suggest that it is possible to add significant hedonic value
into tasting experiences, when including sound as part of the experience's context. In addition, we
reflect on the implications of the emotional mediation that sound may be bringing into the tasting
experience. Here, most of the discussion surrounding emotional mediation points out towards the
need of further customisation and personalisation of sounds in order to more effectively enhance
tasting experiences. However, we also suggest the usage of social influence techniques as a more
generalised way to use sound as an added value for social engagement.
We suggest that more rigorous complementary research is still necessary in order to better uncover
the basis for such cross-modal interactions.
We consider that this type of work could rely on more cognitive experimental designs (complementing
the behavioural ones that have been extensively exploited in this research).
Moreover, potential technological applications that may be possible to implement in the near-mid-term
are also introduced. For example, we discuss the role of new technologies in sound-taste and soundflavour
experiences, as complementary future related research. We introduce applicable future work,
related to blending our existent insights with state-of-the-art technology, such as music classification
techniques, gadgets, virtual reality, and/or wearable sensors. On top of that, we intend to contribute to
the existent discussion by focusing on the role of new technologies as means for multisensory food
and drink experiential design, in particular, when they relate to sound. We argue that sound could be
further used in order to influence decision-making tasks, while ordering food in restaurants and
catering facilities, presenting some preliminary results.
Finally, we present tangible examples of the social and economic valorisation potential of food
products that use this scientific framework as baseline for solutions in the context of multisensory
experiential design. In particular, we present the project entitled 'The Sound of Chocolate', a new way
of experiencing Belgian chocolates, through music. Based on this research, chocolate and music are
being paired, and Brussels’ customers are experiencing multi- sensory enhanced chocolate boxes,
which come with their own soundtracks.

Address of the venue: Dijlezzal Bethlehem / Room BETH.M00.A1: Schapenstraat 34, Leuven

Short CV

Master in Acoustics engineering in Architectural an Environment (2012)