College of Dentistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0690, USA.
Curr Biol. 2013 May 6;23(9):R374-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.03.038.
The flavor quality of many fresh fruits available to consumers today is generally believed to have deteriorated. While agricultural and postharvest practices certainly contribute to poor flavor, a large part of the problem is the challenge of breeding for and accurately assessing such a complex, multigenic trait in a natural product such as a fruit. Here we address the parallel challenges linked to measurement of flavor and human preferences, particularly as it applies to a complex, whole food in which many chemicals and sensations are synthesized into a distinct and recognizable flavor profile. What is flavor? What contributes to the pleasure evoked by flavors? We examine interactions between taste and olfaction as well as psychophysical measurement limitations that confound efforts to understand human flavor preferences. The ability to address these questions in a whole food presents exciting opportunities to understand the basic principles of how we select the foods that we eat.
如今，消费者普遍认为许多新鲜水果的口感质量已经下降。虽然农业和采后处理措施肯定会导致口感不佳，但造成这个问题的很大一部分原因是，在自然产物（如水果）中培育和准确评估这种复杂的多基因性状具有挑战性。在这里，我们将探讨与风味测量和人类偏好相关的平行挑战，特别是在涉及到将许多化学物质和感觉合成到独特且可识别的风味特征的复杂全食物时。什么是风味？什么因素促成了风味带来的愉悦感？我们研究了味觉和嗅觉之间的相互作用，以及混淆人们理解人类风味偏好的努力的心理物理测量限制。在全食物中解决这些问题的能力为我们提供了一个令人兴奋的机会，可以了解我们选择所吃食物的基本原理。
