Kremer Stefanie, Bult Johannes H F, Mojet Jos, Kroeze Jan H A
Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences, PO Box 557, 6700 AN Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Chem Senses. 2007 Jul;32(6):591-602. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjm028. Epub 2007 May 22.
Differences between elderly subjects (n = 46, 61-86 years) and young subjects (n = 36, 18-25 years) in food perception and food liking were investigated. Intensity and liking ratings were assessed for custard dessert, in which flavor enrichment, textural change, and irritant addition were incorporated as strategies to compensate for sensory losses with increasing age. The sensory acuity (taste, olfaction, irritation, chewing efficiency) of both young and elderly subjects was measured with the help of different sensitivity tests. The elderly perceived the custards differently from the young, mainly as less intense in flavor (cherry/vanilla) and less intense in creaminess/swallowing effort. Several of the observed interaction effects were different for the elderly and the young. The majority of these differences manifested as lower intensity slopes for the elderly. Losses in sensitivity to taste and to olfactory and trigeminal stimuli as well as a reduced chewing efficiency were observed on average for the elderly compared with the young. Furthermore, subgroups of the elderly were observed in which the compensatory strategies flavor enrichment, textural change, and irritant addition led to an increase in food liking. However, these subgroups did not differ in their sensory acuity. The present study does not support the assumption that age-associated changes in food perception-caused by losses in sensory acuity-inevitably reduce the food liking of the elderly.
研究了老年受试者（n = 46，61 - 86岁）和年轻受试者（n = 36，18 - 25岁）在食物感知和食物喜好方面的差异。对蛋奶冻甜点的强度和喜好评分进行了评估，其中采用了风味增强、质地改变和添加刺激物等策略来弥补随着年龄增长而出现的感官损失。借助不同的敏感性测试测量了年轻和老年受试者的感官敏锐度（味觉、嗅觉、刺激感、咀嚼效率）。老年人对蛋奶冻的感知与年轻人不同，主要表现为风味（樱桃/香草）强度较低，以及奶油感/吞咽难度较低。观察到的一些交互作用效应在老年人和年轻人中有所不同。这些差异大多数表现为老年人的强度斜率较低。与年轻人相比，老年人平均在味觉、嗅觉和三叉神经刺激的敏感性以及咀嚼效率方面有所下降。此外，还观察到老年人群体中的一些亚组，其中风味增强、质地改变和添加刺激物等补偿策略导致食物喜好增加。然而，这些亚组在感官敏锐度方面并无差异。本研究不支持这样的假设，即由感官敏锐度下降引起的与年龄相关的食物感知变化必然会降低老年人对食物的喜好。
