A novel quantitative method for evaluating food sensory complexity using the temporal dominance of sensations method

"Complexity" is one of the effective sensory traits that influence food preference. In this study, we developed some novel quantification parameters to evaluate food sensory complexity using the temporal dominance of sensation (TDS) method. Chicken broth was used as a sample, and it was supplemented with chicken oil to adjust the complexity. We prepared chicken broths with four levels of chicken oil supplementation, and evaluated them using the TDS method and eight sensory terms. In the TDS curve of all broths, flavor characteristics such as "saltiness," "umami," and "chicken odor" were dominant, but "fat taste" and "oily odor" were dominant in the chicken broth with the highest oil supplementation. As prospective markers of food sensory complexity, "the number of dominant sensations (NDS)" and "the number of changes of the dominant sensation (NCDS)" were calculated from the TDS data, and both increased significantly with oil supplementation. Furthermore, we developed a dynamic complexity parameter called the "dominance rate variance curve (DRVC)" that depicts the variance of the dominance rate of every sensory term calculated from the TDS curve over time. The decrease in DRVC value corresponds to the dominance rates of the sensory terms being closer together, indicating that the sensory characteristic is complex. The DRVC value decreased when oil was added to the chicken broth, indicating that it is a useful complexity parameter. Thus, we successfully developed three quantitive parameters (NDS, NCDS, and DRVC) for evaluating the sensory complexity of food using the TDS method.