 "Photo: Courtesy of MCT Campus")
MINNEAPOLIS - They came from the Netherlands to discuss how children make faces in response to food they like or dislike. They came from Glasgow to wonder why people say, "Not chicken again." And they came from Mexico to find out why Americans will devour "fruity-fatty" and "bready" things, but cringe at "spicy-fatty" foods.
And in their down time, the 900 scientists from 54 countries meeting at the Minneapolis Hyatt discovered the watery delight of walleye and the sensory perfection of the s'more.
The Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium - held in Minneapolis for the first time because of the high number of food producers here - brought together many of the people responsible for how you feel, smell and taste things.
The attendees, from chemical engineers to nutritionists, psychologists to "super-tasters," are the people who know more about you than you might suspect. For example, you're more likely to keep your Fritos on top of your refrigerator than anyplace else.
They are the people responsible for 40 different types of orange juice at the grocery store (High pulp? Some pulp? No pulp?), and the phenomenon called "butter-flavored" popcorn.
"It's a whole different world behind the food scene that few people know about," said Elizabeth Parks, a nutritionist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
The topics of the four-day symposium, sponsored by sensory laboratories and food companies that included General Mills, spanned the commercial, the scientific and the nutritional.
Some attendees were there to learn how to sell more of their product. Some were interested in research that might help people curb food urges. Some were there to probe your frontal cortex.
Think of the Food Network's Alton Brown, times 900.
"If your strawberry yogurt is the third best seller, these people can tell you how it is different from the first, and what can you do," said Zata Vickers of the University of Minnesota's Department of Food Science and Nutrition. "They make sure your box of Cheerios today tastes exactly the same as the box you bought last week."
One seminar discussed findings that brain scans of chefs revealed dramatically higher activity in the frontal cortex when they were given smells or tastes.
"The question is which came first?" asked Maria Veldhuizen of Yale's John B. Pierce Laboratory.
Are they chefs because of higher sensitivity to taste and smell, or did they develop them because they are chefs?
In another room, Brian Wansink was dissecting how the Subway chain created a reputation for healthy and low-fat sandwiches through its "Jared" commercials.
But a case study showed that while most customers knew Subway offered low-fat sandwiches, "they still ate the 12-inch meatball sub," or added chips and cookies, he said.
The author of "Mindless Eating; Why We Eat More Than We Think," Wansink discussed how difficult it is for people to monitor their food. Even nutrition professors, when given a larger bowl, ate 51 percent more ice cream, he said.
Huajing Xing, a native of China now living in Connecticut, will take a lot of knowledge home, as well as a polite appreciation of Minnesota food.
"I like the fish," she said. "And the marshmallow. You know, melting?"
S'mores?
"Oh yeah," she said. "I love it."?
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