Associate Professor Julien Delarue鈥檚 research focuses on sensory and consumer science, which measures consumer perceptions of products through their senses and how this perception affects their preferences and their behaviors.
鈥淭he type of research I do has two components,鈥 said Delarue, who is in the Department of Food Science and Technology. 鈥淭he one really fundamental component we鈥檙e interested in is what people perceive. But it鈥檚 also very much applied in the industry, especially the food industry, and companies want to have access to that information.鈥
Delarue said sensory and consumer science is a challenging field to study because it involves a crossroads of sciences and dealing with individual biases. 鈥淲e all perceive things differently through our senses. There鈥檚 genetics, physiology, anatomy, habits and personal preferences in the way you eat or drink something that changes the results,鈥 Delarue said. 鈥淎nd when you ask people what they feel, what they perceive, or what they like, you may induce all sorts of biases.鈥
Delarue said new trends in his field are focusing on how to tackle these issues. 鈥淗ow can we access people鈥檚 reality more accurately, and how can we measure that and predict it? There鈥檚 been a lot of development in trying to take the experience into account, not just single point measurements.鈥
A new multisensory immersive room at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis can be used for product development, innovation and research. The visual environment, audio, temperature, air conditions and scent of the room can be changed, aiming to provide a fully immersive experience. Delarue, who led the effort, said, 鈥淓verything I do is to try to get closer to people鈥檚 real life. So that includes how we deal with the samples, how we ask questions, and also where we do the test. Our developments are based on bringing context or taking context into account.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 where I think sensory and consumer science is very important, because it can help the food scientists, nutritionists and policymakers to better address all these issues and improve our food, generally speaking.鈥