Sinem Bahçekapılı, Sales and Marketing Coordinator at Karma Grup, points out that the most important components creating a product's flavour are odour and aroma molecules in foods. At the Odour Workshop they will organize for sector professionals with trainers specializing in the field, Bahçekapılı said they will present valuable information on how our sense of smell affects our sense of taste, and noted that understanding consumers is gaining increasing importance with each passing day. Odour has a significant impact on how we perceive the world, our emotions and our behaviour. Throughout our lives, we create personal odour libraries, accumulating many memories together with odours. The reason why memories from our odour library are revived when accompanied by a familiar scent is precisely this… Odour perception directly influences our choices regarding what we eat and drink. In critical sectors touching every area of life such as food, beverages, packaging and cosmetics, Karma Grup, which provides sector-specific training and consultancy services, will hold an Odour Workshop on 17 March in cooperation with Döhler, where all factors affecting our sense of smell will be discussed by expert names.

We perceive the flavour of foods and beverages through their odour

Sinem Bahçekapılı, Sales and Marketing Coordinator at Karma Grup, noting that the sense of taste is greatly influenced by the sense of smell, said: "Odour perception, the ability of a person to recognize, identify and evaluate odours, is closely related to how odour senses work and results from odour molecules binding to receptors in the nose. The most important components creating a product's flavour are odour and aroma molecules in foods. The sense of taste is greatly influenced by the sense of smell. More than 70 per cent of the sensory characteristics we think we receive through taste are actually related to our sense of smell. Our sense of taste only enables us to distinguish bitterness, saltiness, sweetness and sourness. It is the odour and aroma molecules in foods that give us most of our sense of taste. When we eat, odour and aroma molecules circulate between the mouth and nose. Odour molecules meet odour-sensing neurons in the nasal cavity and send messages to the brain. According to the prevailing view, food odours acquire their taste-enhancing qualities as a result of being evaluated together with foods strongly associated with that taste".

Vanilla tastes bitter but smells sweet…

Bahçekapılı, sharing examples on how flavours are perceived, said "For example, most people describe vanilla, caramel and strawberry as having sweet odours. Vanilla is particularly interesting in this respect because vanilla pods actually taste very bitter. However, vanilla extract is found in a wide variety of sweet products, from ice cream to cola-based beverages. Most consumers associate vanilla aroma with sweetness. Another example can be given from tomato purees. In a study on sensory analysis, when certain 'sweet' tomato aromas were added to tomato purees with partially reduced odour, trained sensory analysis panellists expressed the view during analysis that the sweetness levels of the tomato purees increased. Consumers enter into an expectation of a certain taste from products with a certain aroma. In food products, the factor causing sweetness is provided through various combinations of these volatile aromas without adding extra sweetness," he said.

Odours evoke memories accumulated in our memory…

While odours evoke memories accumulated in our memory, they simultaneously create memories with new experiences. It emerges as an important factor that consumers touch on the product's effect on us and our memories when choosing a product. Emphasizing that the positive effect of an odour liked by consumers on consumer behaviour is frequently evaluated in new product development, Sinem Bahçekapılı also stated that it is of critical importance for all sectors, particularly food and beverages. Karma Grup is organizing the Odour Workshop on 17 March… Stating that participants will have the opportunity to examine how our sense of smell activates our sense of taste at the Odour Workshop, Karma Grup Sales and Marketing Coordinator Sinem Bahçekapılı said, "The sum of the taste, odour and texture of the foods we consume is a summary of how we define that food. At the Odour Workshop we will organize for sector professionals with trainers specializing in the subject; we will examine in depth how our sense of smell affects our sense of taste and to what extent. We will provide participants with valuable information that will help them improve their work on odour physiology, odour profiling, panellist selection in sensory analysis applications and odour techniques used in training. We will bring our workshop activities to life on 17 March at Workinton Kozyatağı AND with the support and cooperation of Döhler," he said.