7 June 2018 - 9:00 - 16.45
University College Birmingham, Summer Row, Birmingham, B3 1JB
Felix Kormelink
Principal Scientist - Raw Materials at Mars Food Global (Oud-Beijerland, Netherlands)
Felix Kormelink has a background in Food Science Technology with a PhD in Food (Bio)Chemistry from the Agricultural University in Wageningen, The Netherlands. Since starting at Mars Food in 1992, he has worked in a variety of Research and Development roles including Quality & Food Safety, Product Development, Process Development, and Science & Technology. In his current role as Principal Scientist, Felix is responsible for managing global research projects and exploring new opportunities in functionality, cost and quality of raw materials.
Melanie Pitout
Global Systems and Nutrition Scientist at Mars Food Global (Oud-Beijerland, Netherlands)
Melanie is a Food Scientist with a background in Quality & Food safety and Product related systems. In her current role at Mars, she has helped deploy the Mars Food Global Health and Wellbeing ambition by embedding the Mars Food Nutrition Criteria to drive global reformulation and innovation activities.
Abstract: The principals to developing healthy products that are affordable, easy to use and are great tasting
Healthy eating has become a significant food trend, resulting in an increased consumer interest in reduced-calorie meals. Developing healthy products that are affordable, great tasting and easy to use is a key initiative of the food industry. In addition to healthy eating food is an experience, which when shared has been shown to promote a sense of wellbeing.
Global regulatory bodies provide clear recommendations on main meal calories, added sugar, sodium, total fat and saturated fat. This nutritional criteria is a benchmark to reformulate products including sauces, side dishes and meal kits. In this reformulation process the sensory performance and consumer acceptance of the product is critical, thus taste is king. There is no magic bullet for replacing nutrients such as sugar, sodium and fat that imparts a same for same sensory profile of an original product. However it is possible to use other ingredients or cooking techniques that enhance taste while improving nutrition.
This presentation will highlight the nutritional criteria for meals and review how techniques from sensory science are being used to measure reformulation changes in the context of reducing/replacing salt, sugar and the fat content of foods. Sensory perception can positively or negatively impact on the product experience, which can be related to the sense of wellbeing. In addition this presentation will review how the multimodal behaviour of sensory perception is related to the state of wellbeing through product experiences.
Lise Dreyfuss
Global Expert Sensory & Consumer, Biofortis
Lise Dreyfuss is a Global Expert in Sensory & Consumer research and has been with Biofortis for 15 years, specializing in the development of innovative methods to always gain understanding of consumers in their most intimate and irrational aspects.
Lise is also Associate Professor in Sensory Analysis and Consumer Insight at Tours University, France. She is also leading standardization in Sensory Analysis worldwide through her position of Chairman of Sensory Analysis committee at ISO.
Abstract: Well-being provided by food: a new questionnaire to support well-being claim
Well-being is a complex concept, highly correlated with notions of wellness, quality of life, life satisfaction and happiness. Thus well-being depends on many criteria such as physical, psychological/emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual, occupational, environmental but also economic, cultural, climate as well as governance and social justice dimensions (Miller & Foster, 2010).
Many questionnaires exist in various domains such as medicine, psychology or economy to measure individual well-being level but none covers all well-being dimensions linked with product usage or consumption.
This presentation will focus on a new tool we developed to measure perceived well-being after repeated consumption of a food supplement. Results confirm a positive perceived effect on health and daily life but also highlight unexpected benefits like a better self-esteem and confidence.
Professor Martin R Yeomans
Professor of Experimental Psychology, University of Sussex
Professor Martin Yeomans is a world-leading researcher in the relationship between sensory experience and aspects of human ingestive behaviour, with over 100 publications and over £2.5M of part research funding. He completed his PhD at Edinburgh on ingestive behaviour before accepting a lectureship at University of Sussex in 1989, where he has remained. His research has focussed on sensory influences on human ingestion, starting with work on palatability and then focussing on the role of learning in human food preference development. His most recent focus integrates these interests by examining how beliefs and expectations of consumers before and during ingestion modify appetite and satiety.
Abstract: Sensory influences on satiation and satiety
The sensory characteristics of foods and drinks influence satiation and satiety in a number of ways, and this talk highlights recent advances in understanding these influences. In relation to satiation, sensory influences were thought to modify the amount consumed in two different ways: our hedonic appreciation of food (palatability) promotes intake, while decreased liking as we consume a food (sensory specific satiety) acts to limit intake. Here a third idea is introduced, hedonic sensory contrast, which suggests that absolute liking is itself modulated by the degree of contrast between food items. In relation to satiety, our prior belief about how filling something will be influences product choice and these beliefs are tested through the sensory characteristics experienced when we first ingest a product. Crucially, these sensory-expectations alter the actual satiety we experience post-ingestion. New data is also presented suggesting that these satiety expectations are modified by acute motivational state: we are more aware of the potential for a product to appease hunger when we are acutely hunger. These various influences are brought together in a model which integrates multiple expectations with perceived sensory characteristics to shape consumer behaviour and satiety.
Dr. Martin Kern
C.E.O. SAM Sensory and Marketing International and Director of Sensory and Marketing Research, Eurofins Worldwide
Dr. Martin Kern is managing director of SAM sensory and marketing international since 2005. SAM a leading international sensory and consumer research specialist and member of the Eurofins Scientific Group. SAM provides a global network with 120 partners being active with research in more than 60 countries worldwide. Martin is responsible for the entire SAM Group with its headquarters located in Munich. At the same time, he leads the International Business Line Eurofins Sensory and Marketing Research Worldwide.
Martin received his masters degree in Enology and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Science from the Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany.
Since 2015: C.E.O. / Managing Director at SAM Sensory and Marketing International
2003 – 2005: Member of the Executive Board ad Hardenberg-Wilthen (spirits)
1995 – 2002: Managing Partner at Vina Torreblanca in Spain (sparkling wine)
1992 – 1995: Head of R&D and Export Manager at API Schmidt-(engineering of continuous fruit processing and thermal treatment of liquids (industrial plate heat exchanger, evaporators, dealcoholization))
1981 – 1991: Studies (viticulture, viniculture, enology) at Universities Geisenheim and Giessen, research doctoral thesis, PhD in Agricultural Science at University Giessen
1958: Born as son of farmers in the south of Germany
“It all started with learning how to make good wine: my professional background is in wine making and enology. Today I am passionate about professional Sensory and Consumer Research. I take great pride in being the voice of the consumer, listening to and understanding them, translating findings into “actionable intelligence” for the Fast Moving Consumer Goods-Industry.”
SAM is member of the European Sensory Network, ESN a leading platform for collaboration on consumer and sensory science. In this non-profit association Martin has the position of vice chair and treasurer. The ESN has 18 industry partners and 32 members all across the world, among them world-renowned Universities, Institutes and global consumer goods industries.
Abstract: How consumers conceptualize Well-Being and Feeling Good in relation to Food and Beverage across the World
Valérie L. Almli1, Rafal Drabek2, Hannelize van Zyl3, Claire Sulmont-Rossé4, Martin Kern5, Nathalie Martin6, Ana Patrícia Silva7, and Gastón Ares8
1Nofima AS, Postboks 210, NO-1431 Ås, Norway; 2 ACCE International, Canada; 3 HEINEKEN; 4 Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, AgroSup Dijon, CNRS, INRA, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté, F-21000 Dijon, France; 5 SAM Sensory and Marketing International GmbH, Oetztaler Strasse 1, D-81373 Munich, Germany; 6 Nestlé Research Centre, Behavior and Perception, Lausanne, Switzerland; 7 Faculty of Biotechnology, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto, Portugal; 8 Universidad de la República, Uruguay
Interest in understanding how consumer goods contribute to perceived wellbeing has increased rapidly in recent years. This study investigates consumers’ associations to feeling good (FG), as well as FG related to food, personal care and home-care products.
Worldwide consumers from 5 continents, 14 countries and 10 languages (N=9,868, n=588-800 per country) responded to a web-based free word association test in February 2016. To ensure culturally representative answers, only respondents declaring having lived in their country their whole life were selected for the survey. The task started with the elicitation of four words associated to FG. Then, successive sections investigated food, personal care and home-care products, eliciting:
- associations between FG and the product category
- specific products in the category
- situations when the product category makes one feel good
- feeling bad in relation to the product category.
The collected data material consisted of over 500,000 entries. A list of main word categories was generated in English for each of the survey questions, after which native speakers for each language categorised the entries according to this scheme. Finally, the word categories were regrouped into 11 overall dimensions. The coded data were analysed by chi-square tests and correspondence analysis at word, category and dimension levels.
Results show that feeling good is internationally associated to happiness, health and family/friends, followed by money, peace/relaxation and food. However, interesting cultural differences emerge, in close relationship to common world region or language type. Results from the three product categories related to feeling good and feeling bad also highlighted a common underlying structure despite the existence of differences among countries. Results bring international insights for food and non-food industries seeking to increase consumers’ wellbeing experience through their products.
This study was funded by the European Sensory Network (http://www.esn-network.com/)
Professor Carl Philpott
Professor of Rhinology & Olfactology and Head of Rhinology & ENT Research Group Professionalism Lead, Norwich Medical School, Honorary Consultant Rhinologist and ENT Surgeon, James Paget University Hospital
Prof. Carl Philpott trained in sinus and skull base surgery at the St Paul’s Sinus Centre in Vancouver and is Professor of Rhinology & Olfactology at Norwich Medical School, UEA and Honorary Consultant Rhinologist at the James Paget University Hospital where he established the UK’s first Smell & Taste Clinic. He has an academic practice with active research in chronic rhinosinusitis and olfactory disorders and is currently Vice President of the British Otorhinolaryngology & Allied Sciences Research Society and Honorary Secretary to ENT UK.
Abstract: The Health impacts of living without smell and/or taste
Loss of smell is a common but underrated problem. At least 1% of people can’t smell and up to 20% may have a smell disorder. Other sensory losses are well recognised and supported, but smell/taste loss can have profound effects that are often only apparent to the sufferer. The seminar will focus on the impact of these disorders on sufferers and steps that can be taken to help alleviate this. Quantitative and qualitative techniques to measure acuity and to understand the impact of sensory loss on individuals will also be discussed.
Dr Sarah Santos-Murphy, Lecturer, Mark Erwins, Lecturer and Mandy Lloyd, Lecturer, University College Birmingham
After completing a Bsc in applied psychology at Newman University College, Sarah went on to study for an interdiscliparny PhD between the departments of chemical engineering and psychology at the University of Birmingham, considering how product formulation affects consumer preference and eating behaviour. Sarah then went on to work as a post doctoral research at the University of Birmingham and now work as a lecturer at University College Birmingham in the College of Food.
Mark Erwins, Lecturer, University College of Birmingham
Mark gained a First class BSs. (Hons) in Food Science at The University of Reading, including a year industrial placement with the International Food Network (IFN) in New York State, working within contract R&D for food and pharmaceutical multi-nationals. Mark recognised the ever increasing importance on nutrition, human health and reformulation, and completed his MSc in Human Nutrition at Kings College London. Since graduating Mark has predominantly worked in the food industry including contributing to research projects at Unilever, development and technical roles within retail and further development roles within large scale bakery operations. He joined University College Birmingham (UCB) earlier this year principally lecturing on the Food Development and Innovation BSc. programme.