Feast's research is state-of-the-art

Our research focuses on the sensory properties of food, how consumers perceive them, and how they interact with other factors affecting consumer food choice behaviour. For example: well-being, nutrition, and context.

Key research expertise includes:

Measuring emotional responses to food
Importance of consumption context
Developing consumer & sensory methodologies
Individual taste perception
Multimodal sensory perception
Drivers of acceptance for dairy products

Project examples

Cross cultural research

We investigate cultural differences in the acceptability of fermented foods between Chinese and New-Zealand-European cultures:

We aim to understand the sensory drivers of food choice behaviours in Chinese consumers and how living in a different culture can change food preferences.

This research is key for NZ industry developing products for overseas markets

Get in touch with Dr Dupas de Matos to find out more.

Woman wearing augmented reality glasses checking app on phone

Mixed reality

Consumers eat and drink in real places, not in sensory booths.

This project compared consumer responses in sensory booths with those from a real café and those from a mixed reality environment. For the latter, we used our HoloLens to immerse the consumer in a video of the real café.

Our research showed: Sensory booths do not provide accurate consumer data. But a mixed reality is a valid tool for collecting consumer data.

Get in touch with Feast to find out more.

Woman''s taste being tested through tongue monitor

Individual variation in perception

Not all consumers are alike. In addition to cultural influences, physiology and genetics also impact sensory perception.

Several Feast projects investigate the impact of independent taste phenotypes such as:

Prop Taster Status
Sweet Liker Status
Thermal Taster Status

We investigate how different phenotypes impact sensory perception, emotional response and food choice behaviours.

Get in touch with Feast to find out more.

Future Foods Catalyst

This MBIE-funded project is focused on understanding the consumer motivations and barriers to plant-based products.

Beyond price, which factors are more important to which consumers? Nutritional facts? Taste? Texture? Sustainability credentials? …

Find out more on the project website.

NZ Milks mean more (NZ3M)

NZ3M is funded by MBIE’s Endeavour Fund. It investigates the digestive and nutritional outcomes of different species of milk (bovine, caprine, cervine, ovine). The aim is to support the growth of the NZ dairy industry.

The project partners with 12 NZ dairy companies across different species.

Feast is leading the Consumer Science element of NZ3M. We are exploring optimal well-being messages for milk that consumers, particularly Chinese older adults, would understand, believe and value.

We are employing novel consumer science approaches, including aspect-based sentiment analysis

Get in touch with Feast to find out more.

Temporal multiple-intake methodologies

Consumers do not normally take just one sip or bite of a product. Not unless it tastes really bad.

Traditionally, sensory and consumer methods have been based on one or a couple of bites or sips of a product.

We are adapting temporal methods to evaluate multiple intakes of products to measure changes in sensory perception of attributes, liking and emotional response.

Get in touch with Feast to find out more.