Emotions are thought to play a crucial role in food behavior. Non-rational emotional decision making may be credited as the reason why consumers select what, how, and when they choose to interact with a food product. In this research, three experiments were completed for the overall goal of understanding the usefulness and validity of selected emotional measurement tools, specifically emotion questionnaire ballots and facial expression analysis, as compared to conventional sensory methods in developing a holistic view of product interest and engagement. Emotional response to 1% low-fat unflavored and chocolate-flavored milk was evaluated by using an emotion-based questionnaire as well as facial expression analysis software, to measure post-experience cognitive and in-the-moment intrinsic (implicit) emotional response, respectively. The software correlated facial movements of participants to associated basic emotions to estimate with what degree consumers were expressing these measured emotions upon presentation of each sample. Finally, the adapted facial expression method was compared to expected measurements from previous studies by measuring emotional facial response to four (sweet, salt, sour, and bitter) basic tastes. The cognitive emotion ballot and implicit facial analysis were able to differentiate between milk samples and offer a greater understanding of the consumer experience. Validity of the facial expression method was lacking for reasons including high individual taste variability, social context, intensities of stimuli, quality of video data capture, calibration settings, sample size number, analysis duration, and software sensitivity limitations. To better validate automatic facial expression methodology, further study is needed to investigate and minimize method limitations. / Master of Science in Life Sciences

Individuella smakupplevelser varierar stort och är delvis beroende av hur väl och intensivt individen kan urskilja grundsmaker. Jämfört med vuxna uppvisar barn en högre preferens för sött och starkare aversion mot bittert. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka 4-6-åriga förskolebarns förmåga att identifiera grundsmaker i livsmedel före och efter träning med grundsmaklösningar. Även barnens förmåga att verbalisera smakupplevelser innan grundsmakträning undersöktes. Studien genomfördes på en förskola, totalt elva barn deltog i studien som bestod av fyra moment. En gruppdiskussion om (grund)smaker, provsmakning av tio olika livsmedel med fortsatt samtal om vad dessa smakade. Tredje momentet var träning med grundsmaklösningar där barnen fick öva på att känna igen sött, surt, salt, bittert och umami. Sista momentet var ett grundsmaktest där barnen fick svara vilka grundsmaker de kunde identifiera i varje livsmedel. Resultaten visade på en signifikant skillnad förmåga att uppfatta salt jämfört med övriga grundsmaker, samt en markant ökad förmåga att både identifiera och verbalisera samtliga grundsmaker i livsmedel efter grundsmakträning. Från att ha benämnt ”gott” och ”äckligt” som smaker kunde barnen efter träning i större utsträckning sätta ord på och identifiera flera olika grundsmaker i livsmedlen de smakade. En kort grundsmakträning är en enkel metod som kan bidra till att få små barn att inta ett positivt, nyfiket förhållningssätt till nya smaker och mat i allmänhet. / Individual experiences of taste differs greatly and is partially due to both the ability to detect basic taste and the intensity at which it is interpreted. Compared to grown-ups, children tend to show a higher preference toward sweet and a greater aversion towards bitter. The purpose of this study was to examine 4-6-year old pre-school children’s ability to identify basic tastes in food before and after training with basic taste solutions. The children’s ability to articulate their taste experiences were also studied before basic taste training. The research were conducted at a single pre-school, eleven children participated in the study which involved four different parts. A group discussion about (basic) tastes, testing of ten different foods accompanied by continued conversations about what the food tasted like. The third part was training with basic taste solutions where the children got to practice recognizing sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. The last part were a basic taste test in which the children were asked to answer what basic tastes they could identify in each food. The results showed a significant difference in the children’s ability to identify salty tastes compared to other basic tastes, also a notably improved ability to detect and articulate all basic tastes after basic taste training. The children went from naming “tasty” and “disgusting” as tastes, to being able to put words on, and identify, many of the basic tastes in each food. A short training session with basic tastes is a simple method which can benefit young children by contributing to a more positive and curious approach towards new flavours and food in general.