Alissa Nolden

• Dual PhD Food Science and Clinical Translational Science
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Massachusetts Amherst

Chemosensory dysfunction, defined as an altered or lost taste and smell, is a prevalent side effect of cancer treatment, with 93% of patients complaining of taste and 60% complaining of changes in smell. Despite their impact, it is an underrecognized symptom, impairing nutritional intake, quality of life, and treatment outcomes. Surprisingly, taste...

Background/objectives: Low- and no-calorie sweeteners (LNCSs) provide sweetness in food applications that are suggested to support consumers' reduced consumption of caloric sweeteners and added sugar intake. Consumers seek guidance and advice on using LNCSs from healthcare providers, including dietitians and nutritionists. However, prior research...

Plant-based alternatives have a lower environmental impact than animal-derived proteins, but many consumers hesitate to try them. An alternative strategy is partially substituting animal proteins with plant proteins, creating hybrid products with improved characteristics. This study investigates consumer perception of hybrid yogurt using choice-bas...

Large amounts of money, time and effort are devoted to sensory and consumer research in food and beverage companies in an attempt to maximize the chances of new products succeeding in the marketplace. Many new products fail due to lack of consumer interest. Answers to what causes this and what can be done about it are complex and remain unclear. Th...

Understanding the motivation behind consumers’ packaging choices is crucial to providing insights for achieving environmental sustainability outcomes. Here, we examined the influence of product attributes (packaging type, packaging claim, product claim, and price) and consumers factors (e.g., diet type, demographic information) driving orange juice...

Plant-based meat has been the primary strategy to reducing meat consumption. While this category has demonstrated success, with the market value estimated to reach USD 20 billion by 2023, the subsequent reduction in meat consumption has not been proportionate. An alternative approach is hybrid products, which are thought to produce products that mo...

Bitterness from phenylthiocarbamide and 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) varies with polymorphisms in the TAS2R38 gene. Three SNPs form two common (AVI, PAV) and four rare haplotypes (AAI, AAV, PVI, and PAI). AVI homozygotes exhibit higher detection thresholds and lower suprathreshold bitterness for PROP compared to PAV homozygotes and heterozygotes, an...

A primary strategy led by the food industry to improve the sustainability of the agricultural food supply is the development of modern plant-based alternatives. The information provided via marketing and product packaging provides consumers with the expectation that these products provide a similar product experience to conventional products, yet i...

Taste alterations, a common treatment-related side effect among cancer patients, with up to 93% complaining of taste-related symptoms. Even with its high prevalence, patients report a lack in support from clinicians. Clinicians’ perspective regarding taste alterations among cancer patients is not well understood. Thus, this study examines clinician...

Fruit snacks have become a popular and convenient snacking choice and have the potential to contribute to a well-balanced diet. However, the nutritional quality of fruit snack products has not yet been studied. The objective of the present study is to provide a nutritional assessment of the fruit snack product category. This study used the Mintel G...

Metallic sensation is often described as unpleasant and can reduce acceptance of foods and beverages and compliance with medication. Masking and suppressing aversive sensations can help to improve acceptance of these products, with many successful strategies identified for bitterness. However, there are few studies investigating effective strategie...

Sensory perception is a neurophysiological process through which human beings interact with and interpret information from the external environment. This process is mediated through complicated internal psychological mechanisms that cannot be easily duplicated by instruments. In this chapter, we explore the relationships between texture stimulus an...

Responses to capsaicin are reduced following repeated exposure, a phenomenon known as capsaicin desensitization. Heavy consumers of chilies consistently report reduced oral burn relative to infrequent consumers, presumably due to chronic desensitization. However, the mechanism(s) underlying capsaicin desensitization remain poorly understood. We hyp...

Kombucha is a fermented tea beverage consumed for its probiotics and functional properties. It has a unique sensory profile driven by the properties of tea polyphenols and fermentation products, including organic acids. Fermentation temperature and sucrose content affect the fermentation process and the production of organic acids; yet less is know...

Introduction Plant-based yogurts are sustainable alternatives to dairy yogurts, but a nutritional comparison of plant-based yogurts within the context of dairy yogurts has not yet been applied to commercially available products in the United States. Dairy yogurts provide significant dietary nutrients, and substituting plant-based yogurts may have u...

Purpose Cancer therapy is essential and lifesaving; however, it can have short- and long-term consequences on patients’ health. Up to 87% of cancer patients report changes in taste function, yet patients report a lack of support from clinicians regarding their experience with taste loss during and following treatment. Thus, the objective of this st...

Food texture remains a key sensory attribute for food enjoyment, with the potential to modulate food intake, particularly in individuals with limited oral processing capabilities (OPC) such as the elderly, dysphagia, and head and neck cancer (HNC) patients. However, information relating to the textural quality of foods for these consumers is limite...

Taste is a frequently cited barrier to the greater adoption of plant-based foods, a dietary pattern associated with both health and environmental benefits. To examine the role of expected taste in promoting greater adoption of plant-based foods, we examined the impact of a text-message intervention on the expected taste of both meat- and plant-prot...

There is growing interest in the adoption of a more sustainable diet, and this has led to the development of plant-derived alternative products that are used as a substitute for products of animal origin. This is a promising way to improve the sustainability of the agricultural food industry; however, there are increasing concerns regarding the nut...

Two of the highest prevalent symptoms reported by cancer patients are taste dysfunction (17.6–93%) and dry mouth/xerostomia (40.4–93%). While it has been hypothesized that reduced saliva may impair taste function, few studies investigate the co-occurrence of taste and dry mouth symptoms in cancer patients. This review provides a summary of the phys...

For pharmaceuticals to deliver their full benefits with maximum efficacy, patients need to follow recommended dosing schedules, in terms of amount and frequency. Unfortunately, the aversive taste of many drugs, especially bitterness, can reduce patient compliance in oral liquid formulations. Given common genetic differences in bitter taste receptor...

In this study, the techno-functional and physical attributes of various commercially available pulse protein isolates were compared with those of soy protein isolate to evaluate their potential application as replacer for soy proteins in liquid and solid food formulations such as meat and dairy analogs. The water holding capacity, oil holding capac...

Background: Sudden smell loss is a specific early symptom of COVID-19, which, prior to the emergence of Omicron, had estimated prevalence of ~40% to 75%. Chemosensory impairments affect physical and mental health, and dietary behavior. Thus, it is critical to understand the rate and time course of smell recovery. The aim of this cohort study was t...

There is a growing need for plant-based yogurts that meet consumer demands in terms of texture. However, more research is required to understand the relationship between physicochemical and mouthfeel properties in plant-based yogurts. The purpose of this study was to determine the physicochemical properties of five commercial plant-based yogurt alt...

There is a growing number of plant-based products that offer consumers numerous options that are intended to have the same taste, flavor, and functionality of conventional animal products. To ensure product success in the marketplace, the industry performs and relies on measures of quality and sensory attributes. Establishing sensory and quality me...

Increasingly, consumers are moving towards a more plant-based diet. However, some consumers are avoiding common plant proteins such as soy and gluten due to their potential allergenicity. Therefore, alternative protein sources are being explored as functional ingredients in foods, including pea, chickpea, and other legume proteins. The factors affe...

p>This is a correction notice for article bjaa041 (DOI: https:// doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjaa041), published 20 June 2020. An incorrect version of the caption to Figure 5 was mistakenly included in the published paper. An updated version is given below. Neither the data nor the paper's conclusions were affected by this correction. The authors sincer...

Alternative meat products provide help to reduce the consumption of meat; however, consumers are concerned with the nutritional quality of the novel and traditional plant-based burgers. The objective is to analyse the nutritional profile of commercially available burgers in the U.S. in the categories of beef, imitation, and veggie. We generated a d...

The oral sensation of metallic is a complex experience. Much of our current understanding of metallic sensation is from the investigation of metal salts, which elicit diverse sensations, including taste, smell, and chemesthetic sensations, and therefore meet the definition of a flavor rather than a taste. Due to the involvement of multiple chemosen...

How much pleasure we take in eating is more than just how much we enjoy the taste of food. Food involvement - the amount of time we spend on food beyond the immediate act of eating and tasting - is key to the human food experience. We took a biological approach to test whether food-related behaviors, together capturing food involvement, have geneti...

Importance: Sudden smell loss is a specific early symptom of COVID-19, with an estimated prevalence of ~40% to 75%. Smell impairment affects physical and mental health, and dietary behavior. Thus, it is critical to understand the rate and time course of smell recovery. Objective: To characterize smell function and recovery up to 11 months post COVI...

Three separate sensory systems – taste, smell, and chemesthesis – contribute to the overall flavor perception of foods and beverages. Psychophysics has led to the quantification of individual differences in perception, which have potentially important implications for food liking and intake, along with human health. Carefully designed studies using...

Animal protein provides unique sensory and textural properties to foods that are not easily replicated when replaced with plant-based alternatives. Food scientists and researchers are currently developing innovative approaches to improve their physical and sensory characteristics in plant-based analogs. In terms of plant-based cheese substitutes (P...

The food industry is creating a diverse range of plant‐based alternatives to dairy products, such as milks, creams, yogurts, and cheeses due to the increasing demand from consumers for more sustainable, healthy, and ethical products. These dairy alternatives are often designed to mimic the desirable physicochemical, functional, and sensory properti...

The modern food system is seeing a change in consumption patterns provoked by several drivers—including ethical, health, and environmental concerns—that are increasing the sales of meat analog foods. This change is accompanied by increased research and development activities in the area of plant-based meats. The aim of the present review is to desc...

Inhaled airborne stimuli are associated with laryngeal disorders affecting respiration. Clinically, several themes emerged from the literature that point to specific gaps in the understanding and management of these disorders. There is wide variation in the types of airborne stimuli that trigger symptoms, lack of standardization in provocation chal...

Background Advancements in nanotechnology are predicted to revolutionize the food industry. The potential applications of nanotechnology in food production are diverse, including packaging, food safety, functional foods, and nutrition. Another, less explored opportunity, is for the use of nanotechnology to improve sensory attributes. Scope and app...

Alterations of taste and smell are common side effects of chemotherapy and can negatively impact patients’ food behavior, nutrition, and overall quality of life. Prevalence of taste and smell disorders can differ by clinical characteristics, such as cancer type, chemotherapy treatment, treatment duration, and by diagnostic approach(es) or psychophy...

In a preregistered, cross-sectional study we investigated whether olfactory loss is a reliable predictor of COVID-19 using a crowdsourced questionnaire in 23 languages to assess symptoms in individuals self-reporting recent respiratory illness. We quantified changes in chemosensory abilities during the course of the respiratory illness using 0-100...

Context A common complaint among oncology patients receiving chemotherapy is altered taste perception. The purpose of this study was to evaluate for differences in common symptoms and stress levels in patients who reported taste changes. Methods Patients were receiving chemotherapy for breast, gastrointestinal, gynecological, or lung cancer. Chang...

Growing demand for sustainable food has led to the development of meat analogs to satisfy flexitarians and conscious meat-eaters. Successful combinations of functional ingredients and processing methods result in the generation of meat-like sensory attributes, which are necessary to attract non-vegetarian consumers. Sensory science is a broader res...

Now published in Chemical Senses doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjaa081. Background: COVID-19 has heterogeneous manifestations, though one of the most common symptoms is a sudden loss of smell (anosmia or hyposmia). We investigated whether olfactory loss is a reliable predictor of COVID-19. Methods: This preregistered, cross-sectional study used a crowdsou...

As texture properties in novel food categories have a crucial role in consumer acceptance, mouthfeel profile of different plant-based yogurt-like semi-solid products were studied and compared to dairy yogurts. Mouthfeel properties of five plant-based yogurt-like products and two dairy yogurts were analyzed using temporal dominance of sensations (TD...

Recent anecdotal and scientific reports have provided evidence of a link between COVID-19 and chemosensory impairments such as anosmia. However, these reports have downplayed or failed to distinguish potential effects on taste, ignored chemesthesis, and generally lacked quantitative measurements. Here, we report the development, implementation and...

Now published in Chemical Senses doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjaa041. Recent anecdotal and scientific reports have provided evidence of a link between COVID-19 and chemosensory impairments such as anosmia. However, these reports have downplayed or failed to distinguish potential effects on taste, ignored chemesthesis, generally lacked quantitative measure...

Genetic variability in the ability to taste thiourea compounds has been studied for 80+ years. Over the last 3 decades, many studies have reported perceived intensity of concentrated propylthiouracil (PROP) associates with greater intensity from a broad range of stimuli, including non-bitter tastants, irritants, and retronasally delivered odorants....

Inborn genetic differences in chemosensory receptors can lead to differences in perception and preference for foods and beverages. These differences can drive market segmentation for food products as well as contribute to nutritional status. This knowledge may be essential in the development of foods and beverages because the sensory profiles may n...

Genetic variability in the ability to taste thiourea compounds has been studied for 80+ years. Over the last 3 decades, many studies have reported perceived intensity of concentrated propylthiouracil (PROP) associates with greater intensity from a broad range of stimuli, including non-bitter tastants, irritants, and retronasally delivered odorants....

Cancer patients often report poor appetite, along with reduced food enjoyment putting them at an increased risk for malnutrition and reduced quality of life. Although oral nutrition supplementation is a clinically proven strategy to augment nutrition, the compliance is low, partially as a result of treatment-related side-effects. Multiple approache...

Individuals undergoing treatment for cancer can experience changes in taste or smell that are often assumed to affect constructs related to food behavior, although this relationship is rarely measured directly. To ascertain the extent to which measured changes in taste and smell during and after cancer treatment affect food behavior, we conducted a...

Context: Over 80% of patients with cancer report taste changes. Despite the high prevalence of this symptom and its negative effects on health, few studies have assessed its association with other gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. Objectives: Determine the occurrence, frequency, severity, and distress of patient-reported "change in the way food ta...

Capsaicin is classically considered an irritant, due to the warming and burning sensations it elicits. Widespread consumption of chilis suggests many individuals enjoy this burn, but these sensations can be overwhelming if the burn is too intense. While substantial folklore exists on the ability of specific beverages to mitigate capsaicin burn, qua...

Chemosensory perception is essential to life. Altered taste or smell function can negatively affect the overall enjoyment of eating and drinking. Taste and smell alterations occur with high frequencies among cancer patients and frequently associate with weight loss and malnutrition. Little is known about how these taste and smell alterations impact...

The present study was conducted to a) generate suprathreshold dose-response functions for multiple qualities evoked by capsaicin across a wide range of concentrations, and b) revisit how intensity ratings and liking may differ as a function of self reported intake. Individuals rated eight samples of capsaicin for perceived burn and bitterness, as w...

Quantitative sensory data is typically collected with descriptive panels using participants who have undergone tens or hundreds of hours of training. Likewise, expert wine tasters spend years learning and perfecting their cra . However, it has also been known for over 80 years that individuals di er in their ability to taste certain chemicals, a ph...

To date, the majority of research exploring associations with genetic variability in bitter taste receptors has understandably focused on compounds and foods that are predominantly or solely perceived as bitter. However, other chemosensory stimuli are also known to elicit bitterness as a secondary sensation. Here we investigated whether TAS2R varia...

Introduction Ethanol, the pharmaceutically active ingredient in all alcoholic beverages, elicits multiple percepts including sweet, bitter, drying, and burning. However, quality-specific perceptual dose-response functions have not been previously reported. Also, individual differences in ethanol perception may associate with differences in alcoholi...

Multiple psychophysical gene-association studies suggest a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) within the bitter receptor gene TAS2R19 on chromosome 12 may be functional. Previously, the Arg299Cys SNP (rs10772420) has been associated with differential bitterness of quinine and differential liking for grapefruit juice. However, quinine does not act...

Background Genetic variation in chemosensory genes can explain variability in individual's perception of and preference for many foods and beverages. To gain insight into variable preference and intake of alcoholic beverages, we explored individual variability in the responses to sampled ethanol (EtOH). In humans, EtOH elicits sweet, bitter, and bu...

In order to reduce calories in foods and beverages, the food industry routinely uses non-nutritive sweeteners. Unfortunately, many are synthetically derived, and many consumers have a strong preference for natural sweeteners, irrespective of the safety data on synthetic non-nutritive sweeteners. Additionally, many non-nutritive sweeteners elicit av...

Demand for nonnutritive sweeteners continues to increase due to their ability to provide desirable sweetness with minimal calories. Acesulfame potassium and saccharin are well-studied nonnutritive sweeteners commonly found in food products. Some individuals report aversive sensations from these sweeteners, such as bitter and metallic side tastes. R...