Maintaining the pleasure in eating is important for everyone and a loss of appetite can affect enjoyment in eating, health and wellbeing. Sensory alterations to eating arise due to ageing, surgery, and a spectrum of common illnesses.
Furthermore, older people, cancer patients, brain injured patients and others may have sensory troubles as well as difficulties in chewing and swallowing.
The recent COVID pandemic has resulted in a loss of smell, taste and a reduced motivation to eat for many people. Poor diet due to sensory alterations has been linked to changed food intake and poor nutrition.
Clearly there has never been a more important time to examine scientific and psycho-social issues related to altered sensory experiences, and solutions to these problems at the interface of science and gastronomy.
The Altered Taste symposium aims at providing scientific and expert knowledge on underlying mechanisms and the role of culinary know-how to increase meal pleasure and thus food intake.
Such strategies based on better understanding and enhancing the hedonic value of the eating experience could help address undernourishment and associated problems in targeted populations. For more information, click here
