Derek Byrne

Aarhus University | AU · Department of Food Science

Throughout six online experiments (four pre-registered), in which participants were tasked to evaluate their temperature expectations of different beverages with or without emotional cues (i.e., emoji facial expressions) with specific temperature associations, we found that imbuing a product with emotional content can influence its expected tempera...

Chocolate-flavored milk contributes to excessive intake of added sugars among children and adolescents, which why it is a good candidate product for sucrose replacement. This study investigates how replacing sucrose partially or completely with different sweetener systems affects the sensory profile and consumer liking. Five chocolate-flavored milk...

The development of scales and questionnaires to assess pleasure perception has gained prominence, particularly for evaluating anhedonia in mental disorders. The Food Pleasure Scale is a comprehensive tool exclusively dedicated to measuring pleasure perception from food and food-related experiences. This study aimed to evaluate the face validity and...

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has highlighted the need for immediate action regarding the escalating global prevalence of overweight and obesity. Based on the need for long-term strategies supporting dietary behaviour changes, the concept of ‘interoception’ (i.e., sensing the body’s internal state) has been proposed as promising for understan...

This study investigated cadaverine as a spoilage indicator in commercial beef products stored under conditions favourable for the growth of lactic acid bacteria. Samples included vacuum-skin-packed entrecotes (EB) aged up to 42 days and modified-atmosphere-packed (70% O2 + 30% CO2) minced beef (MB) stored at 5 °C. Two MB product lines were analysed...

This chapter covers some of the most popular emerging technologies used for measuring human behaviour in applied sensory and consumer science. Here, we focus on eye-tracking (ET) technology, electrodermal activity (EDA) or skin conductance, facial expression analysis (FEA) and electroencephalography (EEG), all of which can be employed to explore th...

Fat and sugar-reduced foods and beverages have become increasingly popular for a variety of reasons, mainly relating to health and wellbeing. Depending on the food or beverage, it may be difficult to reduce the fat and/or sugar content and still maintain optimal sensory properties for the specific product. One way of approaching the problem is to g...

In the last decades, there has been a growing interest in crossmodal correspondences, including those involving temperature. However, only a few studies have explicitly examined the underlying mechanisms behind temperature-related correspondences. Here, we investigated the relative roles of an underlying affective mechanism and a semantic path (i.e...

The present study aimed to formulate sucrose‐replaced samples with natural or synthetic sweeteners, and to benchmark the temporal sensory profile of sucrose‐replaced samples to a control sample (100% sucrose). Acesulfame‐K, aspartame, erythritol, rebaudioside M, and sucralose replaced sucrose at four different levels (25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%) in aq...

Visual textures are critical in how individuals form sensory expectations about objects, which include somatosensory properties such as temperature. This study aimed to uncover crossmodal associations between visual textures and temperature concepts. In Experiment 1 (N = 193), we evaluated crossmodal associations between 43 visual texture categorie...

Ubiquitous exposure to visual food content has been implicated in the development of obesity with both individual and societal costs. The development and increasing adoption of Extended Reality (XR) experiences, which deliver an unprecedented immersion in digital content, would seem to carry the risk of further exacerbating the consequences of visu...

While obesity remains a pressing issue, the wider population continues to be exposed to more digital food content than ever before. Much research has demonstrated the priming effect of visual food content, i.e., exposure to food cues increasing appetite and food intake. In contrast, some recent research points out that repeated imagined consumption...

Anhedonia, the diminished ability to experience pleasure, is a key symptom of a range of mental and neurobiological disorders and is associated with altered eating behavior. This research study investigated the concept of anhedonia in relation to mental disorders and the perception of pleasure from food to better understand the link between anhedon...

In the last decades, there has been a growing interest in crossmodal correspondences, including those involving temperature. However, only a few studies have explicitly examined the underlying mechanisms behind temperature-related correspondences. Here, we investigated the relative roles of an underlying affective mechanism and a semantic path (i.e...

This study investigated sweet–sour taste interactions in novel sweeteners using a 3 × 2 factorial design consisting of Sweetening System (three levels: sucrose; d ‐allulose; and a blend of d ‐allulose and Monk fruit extract) and Acidity (two levels: with or without citric acid). 110 untrained Chinese subjects participated using the temporal check‐a...

Psychological stressors frequently occur in modern society, and are associated with general anhedonic traits (inability to experience pleasure) and altered eating behavior. As eating behavior is largely motivated by a desire for pleasure, the Food Pleasure Scale (FPS) was introduced as a new research tool for investigating aspects of pleasure from...

The link between acute stress, food pleasure and eating behavior in humans by employing measures of individual reward mechanisms has not been investigated as of yet. Having these insights is key to understanding why many people experience a change in eating behavior when experiencing stress. Thirty-five Danes (mean age 21.71 years) underwent a stre...

Food waste in perishable products calls for the development of cost-efficient and real-time freshness and shelf life assessment tools. The current study evaluated a newly developed cadaverine biosensor for its ability to assess the sensory freshness stage and microbial quality of modified atmosphere packed (MAP) pork cutlets under a realistic suppl...

Throughout six experiments (five pre-registered), we found that embodying a product with emotional content, by using emoji facial expressions, influences its expected temperature in online settings. A negative valence, low arousal expression on the receptacle of a hot chocolate beverage leads to lower expected temperature than a positive valence, h...

While scientific research has been largely engaged with untangling the psychological and emotional factors contributing to comfort eating, the potential impact of the physical eating environment on comfort eating behaviour has not been investigated. A limited amount of literature suggests that relaxing background music may lead to healthier food ch...

The interplay between external auditory cues in the eating environment and cognitive processes, such as distraction, may influence food intake, but how and the degree to which they do is unclear. We report an experiment designed to investigate the effects of different sonic atmospheres on meal duration, food intake and evaluations, and responses to...

A greater comprehension of factors contributing to pleasure from food-related experiences could increase understanding of underlying processes around different eating behaviours. We explored drivers of food pleasure and whether certain consumer characteristics were associated with specific food pleasure profiles. This study aimed to investigate (1)...

Our ability to evaluate long-term goals over immediate rewards is manifested in the brain’s decision circuit. Simplistically, it can be divided into a fast, impulsive, reward “system 1” and a slow, deliberate, control “system 2.” In a noisy eating environment, our cognitive resources may get depleted, potentially leading to cognitive overload, emot...

Cross-cultural research with a focus on understanding food consumer behaviour is becoming increasingly relevant and important, not least because of the globalization of food markets. A better understanding of the relative importance of factors contributing to food pleasure could advance our understanding of different food behaviours. Two identical...

Wanting and liking are both components of food reward, but they manifest in fundamentally different neural substrates. While wanting denotes anticipatory and motivational behaviors, liking is associated with consummatory and hedonic experiences. These distinct constructs have also been quantitatively dissociated in behavioral paradigms. Indeed, int...

Eating-related challenges and discomforts arising from moderately acquired brain injuries (ABI)—including physiological and cognitive difficulties—can interfere with patients’ eating experience and impede the recovery process. At the same time, external environmental factors have been proven to be influential in our mealtime experience. This experi...

In modern times, the majority of food intake is believed to be driven by hedonic processes, rather than homeostatic ones. Various factors have been found to influence the hedonic eating experience and thereby influence eating behaviour, and each factor can be regarded a piece that contributes to parts of the total picture of the hedonic response to...

Emotions and temperature are closely related through embodied processes, and people seem to associate temperature concepts with emotions. While this relationship is often evidenced by everyday language (e.g., cold and warm feelings), what remains missing to date is a systematic study that holistically analyzes how and why people associate specific...

Obesity continues to be a global issue. In recent years, researchers have started to question the role of our novel yet ubiquitous use of digital media in the development of obesity. With the recent COVID-19 outbreak affecting almost all aspects of society, many people have moved their social eating activities into the digital space, making the que...

Food choice is a multifaceted construct that is not solely guided by our internal incentives. In fact, sensory scientist, consumer psychologists, and marketers have demonstrated that external ambient cues, including background music, can influence myriads of subconscious consumer behaviors, effectively leading to increased sales of food and beverag...

Acceptance and preference of the sensory properties of foods are among the most important criteria determining food choice. Sensory perception and our response to food products and finally food choice itself are affected by a myriad of intrinsic as well as extrinsic food factors. There is much empirical research showcasing the effect that our sense...

Tastes interact in almost every consumed food or beverage, yet many aspects of interactions, such as sweet-sour interactions, are not well understood. This study investigated the interaction between sweetness from sucrose and sourness from citric and tartaric acid, respectively. A cross-cultural consumer study was conducted in China (n = 120) and D...

Poster presented at the Association for Consumer Research (ACR) Conference 2020 Link: https://www.acrwebsite.org/web/acr-conference/welcome-new

Acceptance and preference of the sensory properties of foods are among the most important criteria determining food choice. Sensory perception and our response to food products and finally food choice itself are affected by a myriad of intrinsic as well as extrinsic factors. The pressing question is, how do these factors specifically affect our acc...

Musical fit refers to the congruence between music and attributes of a food or product in context, which can prime consumer behavior through semantic networks in memory. The vast majority of research on this topic dealing with musical fit in a cultural context has thus far been limited to monocultural groups in field studies, where uncontrolled con...

A considerable amount of fresh fish is wasted, due to imprecise shelf life estimations that lead to relatively short use-by dates. This study aimed at evaluating a newly developed sensor measuring cadaverine headspace concentrations, as a rapid and precise measure to estimate within a realistic DK retail scenario freshness and shelf life of importe...

Recent research has shown that eating behaviour is not only influenced by factors associated with the individual alone (e.g. psychological/physiological states) but also by the external factors determining the surrounding environment in which one eats (e.g. lighting, colour, temperature, or music). The present research examines the extent to which...

Non-nutritive sweeteners often contain off-flavors and the use of aroma to increase sweetness intensity only allows for a small reduction of the sugar content in products. Therefore, it has been suggested to combine different strategies in order to successfully reduce sugar content in foods and beverages. Additionally, the use of aroma to increase...

Culture is one of the main factors that influence food assessment. This cross-cultural research aimed to compare Chinese and Danish consumers in their post-ingestive drivers of Post-Ingestive Food Pleasure (PIFP). We define PIFP as a “subjective conscious sensation of pleasure and joy experienced after eating”. We conducted two in-country consumer...

Sound can have a profound impact on our eating experience and behavior. The term “sonic seasoning”, arising from crossmodal correspondences, denotes the tendency for soundtracks with congruent taste/flavor attributes to alter people’s food perception. However, the implicit behavior effects of such sound-taste correspondence have not yet been tested...

Sugar reduction in food and beverage products involves several challenges. Non-nutritive sweeteners may give unwanted off-flavors, while sugar-reduced products often lack mouthfeel. To overcome this, the addition of aroma to increase sweetness through cross-modal interactions, and the addition of hydrocolloids such as pectin to increase viscosity,...

Greater amberjack is one of the major candidate species for aquaculture diversification; however, with the exception of sporadic data on the proximate (PC) and fatty acid (FA) composition, limited knowledge exists regarding the quality variations occurring between wild and reared Greater amberjack. To expand this knowledge, the current study examin...

Comprehending the complexity and determinants of food choices can help understand facets of the growing obesity epidemic. Focusing on consumers’ subjective sensations as determinants of food choices can provide essential insights into eating behaviors. We explored subjective sensations linked to appetite, desire, wellbeing and energy. This study ai...

Sweetness enhancement by aromas has been suggested as a strategy to mitigate sugar reduction in food products, but enhancement is dependent on type of aroma as well as sugar level. A careful screening of aromas across sugar levels is thus required. Screening results might, however, depend on the method employed. Both descriptive sensory analysis an...

Feedback on panel performance is traditionally provided by the panel leader, following an evaluation session. However, a novel method for providing immediate feedback to panelists was proposed, the Feedback Calibration Method (FCM). The aim of the current study was to compare the performance of two panels trained by using FCM with two different app...

This study investigated the effect of level of sensory experience and type of product knowledge on panel performance during a descriptive analysis. Additionally, the applicability of the feedback calibration method (FCM) was investigated for use with different types of panels. A well‐established expert panel (professional product specific knowledge...

This paper outlines the development of an in-progress prototype system that explores the interplay between sonic interaction and eating activities. The music-playing mug prototype is designed as a physical interface which aligns the user's senses with the act of drinking. Drinking from the mug involves multiple senses, including tactile interaction...

The obesity epidemic urges exploration of several parameters that play an important role in our eating behaviours. Post-ingestive sensations can provide a more comprehensive picture of the eating experience than mere satiety measurements. This study aimed to (1) quantify the dynamics of different post-ingestive sensations after food intake and (2)...

Obesity is a growing problem. Insights into satiety and other post-ingestive sensations may be important in understanding influential factors in our eating behaviour. The purpose of this research study was to explore beyond satiety and gain a better understanding of the umbrella term 'Post-ingestive sensations', this from a consumer point-of-view....

The nutritional and sensory quality of a fish fillet is subject to alterations depending on the culinary method used for preparation. The current study aimed to explore the effects of custom culinary preparation methods (steaming, oven-cooking, frying) on the fillet lipid and sensory quality of two important Mediterranean farmed fish species varyin...

It is well‐known that multiple sensory cues influence flavor perception and liking. The present study aimed to combine and compare the relative influences of product‐related and contextual factors on taste perception and liking, with a focus on the perception of sweetness. Participants tasted samples of the same base fruit beverage with one of thre...

A study was designed to assess whether the individual and combined effects of product-intrinsic and product-extrinsic factors influence the perception of, and liking for, carbonated beverages. Four hundred and one participants tasted samples of one of three flavours (grapefruit, lemon, or raspberry) of carbonated aromatised non-alcoholic beer. The...

With increasing attention toward understanding underlying factors of food acceptability, it was investigated how different sensory profiles of berry and vegetable beverages impacted consumers' associations, emotions, view of appropriateness, and consequently liking acquisition. In total, 216 (F = 161, M = 55) subjects (18–66 years) participated in...

Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) is a simple and fast sensory profiling tool. Yet, its application has been mainly focused on consumer studies; the aim of this study was to evaluate the application of CATA with semi-trained (ST) individuals (N = 37). ST individuals were consumers who underwent 1 h of training with physical references on the definition o...

Background: The aquaculture sector needs to increase the diversity in fish species and their processed products to cover rising consumer demands. Candidates for this diversification have been identified to be meagre, Greater amberjack, pikeperch, and wreckfish. Yet, scientific knowledge on their sensory profiles and consumer hedonic responses is s...

The present study investigated appetite sensations, hedonics, sensory specific desires, physical- and psychological well-being sensations during and after intake of a meal with- and without increased oral heat induced by addition of cayenne pepper. Subjects (n=66) completed a randomized cross-over study involving a tomato soup with and without adde...

This paper studied the fast sensory Rate-All-That-Apply (RATA) method as a contributor to existing quality control (QC) in chocolate production by comparing it with the outcome of dynamic headspace sampling combined with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (DHS-GC-MS). Seven different chocolates were evaluated by a semi-trained panel using RATA. R...

It is crucial to understand influential parameters for acquisition of consumer liking to ensure succesful product introduction and competativeness in the marketplace. This article aims to study and understand liking in relation to sensory characteristics, consumer concept associations, arousal potential and appropriateness for use using apple juice...

Repeated exposure was investigated for predicting long‐term liking of five chocolates products; three novel products, added cinnamon/cardamom, commercial beet flavor or a homemade beet‐flavor and two existing products: 70% chocolate and chocolate added liquorice. Ninety‐five Danish consumers were exposed daily to one of the five chocolate types dur...

Unique food products constitute a very important element of European food business, culture, identity, and heritage. Understanding the uniqueness of certain food in Europe from a research based interdisciplinary perspective will be a critical factor in promoting the competitiveness of artisanal food industries going forward both locally and interna...

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the name of the product - in terms of the phonetic speech sounds - conveys sensory (appearance, odours, basic tastes, flavours, textures, mouthfeeling and after-tastes) associations to consumers. Moreover, the existence of conceptual associations to the sound of the product's name was also ana...

This study investigated the overall consumer experience of a common complex food product by comparing its traditional and modern form. The aim of the study was to uncover the mechanisms, occurring in the consumers' perception, responsible for defining the key elements of the product and therefore its uniqueness. Descriptive analysis was carried out...

Sensory characteristics of 21 locally produced Danish honeys representing a span in seasonal variation and location across Denmark were studied. Seasonal variation influenced the sensory characteristics predominantly as a consequence of changes in the flora of the honeybees' habitat. However, honeys from different locations displayed specific senso...

A compensatory finishing strategy was evaluated to improve the quality of meat from dairy cows. The experiment included ten pairs of Holstein Friesian dairy cows. Each pair was the progeny of the same sire, in the same parity, and approximately at the same number of days in lactation before entering the experiment. Within each pair, one cow was all...

In this chapter, we clarify the concept of consumer-oriented innovation in the food and personal products sectors and define it as a process towards the development of a new product or service in which an integrated analysis and understanding of consumers' wants, needs and preference formation play a key role. We then outline relevant streams of re...

Sensory profiling was performed for a Danish lightly fermented heat-processed cold cut pork product termed 'rullepølse'. Product samples were stored under modified atmosphere (MAP, 30% CO(2)/70% N(2)) for 0, 28 and 34days and with subsequent aerobic storage for 4days (MAP-OPEN) at temperatures of 4°C and 8°C. Microbial growth and metabolism was als...

To evaluate the potential for developing a quality index for a Danish modified atmosphere packaged (MAP) heat-processed and naturally contaminated pork meat product stored at 5 degrees C. The composition of the predominating microflora and changes in contents of tyramine, arginine, organic acids and sensory characteristics were analysed. The microf...

The effects of restrictive feeding strategies aimed at promoting a compensatory growth response were investigated with respect to tenderness improvement in pork M. longissimus thoracis. Compensatory growth response is defined by increased weight in pigs fed ad libitum after a period with restricted feeding compared to pigs fed ad libitum the entire...

Skatole, androstenone and other compounds such as indole cause boar taint in entire male pork. However, female pigs also produce skatole and indole. The purpose of this experiment was to minimise boar taint and increase overall impression of sensory quality by feeding entire male and female pigs with fibre-rich feedstuffs. The pigs have been fed th...

Compensatory growth has been shown to affect rate of muscle protein turnover and may potentially improve tenderness of beef. Thus, a study of tenderness in relation to feeding regime and slaughtering at a time with maximal muscle protein degradation was performed. Friesian bull calves (5-month-old) were fed either ad libitum (n=6) (AA) or restricti...