Holistic Approaches in Sensory Research on Food and Non-food Products Using New Techniques and Digital Tools

Dear Colleagues,

Sensory and consumer research is widely used in the evaluation of food and non-food products (e.g. packaging, cosmetics, cars, equipment, pet food; tobacco products). There are many classic methods as well as innovative techniques (e.g., automatic facial expression, eye tracking, body temperature; skin conductance) that can be successfully applied to solve research problems in science as well as in industry. The issues related to the methodological approaches for measuring consumer well-being and the impact of context on consumer perception as well as digital solutions in sensory and consumer sciences are also interesting. Nowadays, sensory researchers also use e-nose, e-tongue and e-eye systems to determine the effect of different factors (e.g. texture additives, flavouring, technological process, raw material; storage) on changes in product quality and qualitative deviations from the adopted benchmark (standard). Research using e-nose, e-tongue and e-eye systems provides us with the opportunity to classify products according to similar and different qualitative and quantitative characteristics. Moreover, it enables the integration of instrumental data with sensory evaluation results.

Holistic research that integrates diverse methods and measurement techniques has a positive impact on the broader perspective of identifying the determinants of human perception and behaviour in relation to products.

The Special Issue invites researchers to submit original research or reviews related to the following topics:

• The effect of intrinsic sensory attributes and the extrinsic cues on consumer perception of food and non-food products;
• Holistic research based on sensory and consumer studies;
• Quantitative or qualitative methods/techniques;
• Digital technologies;
• The use of eye tracking and FaceReader for food and non-food products;
• Well-being related to various products;
• E-nose, e-tongue and e-eye in the area of sensory sciences.

Dr. Eliza Kostyra
Dr. Anna Piotrowska
Dr. Sylwia Żakowska-Biemans
Guest Editors

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• sensory research
• consumer behaviour
• food and non-food products
• descriptive analysis test
• qualitative techniques
• immersive technique
• virtual reality
• eye tracking
• novel techniques in sensory profiling
• digital solutions
• e-nose, e-tongue and e-eye