Product Description: Food chemicals provide a variety of information. They inform us of food safety, quality, authenticity, and origin, with direct links to our emotional responses in many cases. This information is key to our survival, whether to avoid disease or to find nutrients, and our enjoyment...read more

A fascinating and deeply researched investigation into the mysteries of flavor--from the first bite taken by our ancestors to scientific advances in taste and the current "foodie" revolution. Taste has long been considered the most basic of the five senses because its principal mission is a simple one: to discern food from everything else. Yet it's really the most complex and subtle. Taste is a whole-body experience, and breakthroughs in genetics and microbiology are casting light not just on the experience of french fries and foie gras, but the mysterious interplay of body and brain. With reporting from kitchens, supermarkets, farms, restaurants, huge food corporations, and science labs, "Tasty" tells the story of the still-emerging concept of flavor and how our sense of taste will evolve in the coming decades. "Tasty" explains the scientific research taking place on multiple fronts: how genes shape our tastes; how hidden taste perceptions weave their way into every organ and system in the body; how the mind assembles flavors from the five senses and signals from body's metabolic systems; the quest to understand why sweetness tastes "good" and its dangerous addictive properties; why something disgusts one person and delights another; and what today's obsessions with extreme tastes tell us about the brain. Brilliantly synthesizing science, ancient myth, philosophy, and literature, "Tasty" offers a delicious smorgasbord of where taste originated and where it's going--and why it changes by the day.

Product Description: In the West, we have identified only four basic tastes―sour, sweet, salty, and bitter―that, through skillful combination and technique, create delicious foods. Yet in many parts of East Asia over the past century, an additional flavor has entered the culinary lexicon: umami, a fifth taste impression that is savory, complex, and wholly distinct...read more

Product Description: The authors of The Perfect Meal examine all of the elements that contribute to the diner?s experience of a meal (primarily at a restaurant) and investigate how each of the diner?s senses contributes to their overall multisensory experience...read more

Product Description: The field of sensory evaluation has matured in the last half century to be­ come a recognized discipline in the food and consumer sciences and an important part of the foods and consumer products industries. Sensory pro­ fessionals enjoy widespread recognition for the important services they provide in new product development, basic research, ingredient and process modification, cost reduction, quality maintenance, and product op­ timization...read more

Product Description: Sensory evaluation is a scientific discipline used to evoke, measure, analyse and interpret responses to products perceived through the senses of sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing. It is used to reveal insights into the way in which sensory properties drive consumer acceptance and behaviour, and to design products that best deliver what the consumer wants...read more

Product Description: Formulation Engineering of Foods provides an in-depth look at formulation engineering approaches to food processing and product development of healthier, higher-performance foods. Through the use of eye-catching examples, such as low fat and low calorie chocolate, and salt reduction strategies in products like cheese and sauces, the book is at once easy to relate to and innovative...read more

Product Description: During the past thirty years, companies have recognized the consumer as the key driver for business and product success. This recognition has, in turn, generated its own drivers: sensory analysis and marketing research, leading first to a culture promoting the expert and then evolving into the systematic acquisition of consumer-relevant information to build businesses...read more

Product Description: This book describes the philosophy of total appearance of food, the factors comprising it, and its application to the food industry. The new edition has been thoroughly updated, and includes new material on information transfer theory covering all sectors of the industry.

Product Description: Producing products of reliable quality is vitally important to the food and beverage industry. In particular, companies often fail to ensure that the sensory quality of their products remains consistent, leading to the sale of goods which fail to meet the desired specifications or are rejected by the consumer...read more