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TNO and WUR researched food choice behavior and taste experience at Lowlands Science
Do the music and fatigue of a three-day festival influence how you taste and enjoy food? And can festival visitors be enticed to choose more sustainable foods? That was one of the main questions for the scientific experiment ‘Bites & Beats: Food for the Future’ that TNO and Liesbeth Zandstra from Wageningen University & Research (WUR) conducted at last weekend's Lowlands festival.
All senses were stimulated during the experiment: seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting. For instance, we know that crisps taste fresher when you hear a cracking sound. So, what else is there to discover that could help to make the sustainable food choice the preferred choice?
Participants first received information on the effect of music and food on the brain via a film clip from Prof. Erik Scherder. They were then exposed to one of the three environments: a ‘sustainable’ environment with lots of green, bird sounds and flower fragrances, a ‘meat’ environment in red colours, with the sounds of country music and smokey BBQ smells, and a white neutral environment. The focus was on plant-based and meat snacks in relation to sustainability and health.
Minister of Education, Culture and Science Robbert Dijkgraaf was one of the festival visitors who came to watch the research.
With more than 250 people participating in the experiment it was a big success, we look back on a great event!
Stay tuned for the results in a couple of months’ time.
