Odor and nutrition

Peer-reviewed | Manuscript received: March 04, 2015 | Revision accepted: April 07, 2015

Part 1: Fundamentals of smelling

A major part of our everyday environmental perception is mediated via smell. Especially for the evaluation of foodstuffs, drinks and tobacco the olfactory perception (lat. olfactere = to smell) plays a predominant role. To meet with this special function, the nose is anatomically located right above the mouth and thus inspects any incoming good. Thus, the sense of smell also controls the individual food preferences.

In a three-part article (parts 2 and 3 will be published in later issues of the Ernährungs Umschau), firstly the fundamentals of smell are discussed in the context of aroma chemistry, before the interactions of chemistry and biology for food sensory sciences and the impacts on personal food preferences are being targeted.

Summary

A major part of our everyday environmental perception is mediated via smell. Especially for the evaluation of foodstuffs, drinks and tobacco the olfactory perception (lat. olfactere = to smell) plays a predominant role. To meet with this special function, the nose is anatomically located right above the mouth and thus inspects any incoming good. Hence, the sense of smell also controls the individual food preferences.

With more than 400 olfactory receptors being subject to high genetic dynamics, it is expected that no two persons exist with the identical olfactory perception. This complexity is yet being increased by the number of potential odorants and moreover, their occurrence in mixtures such as food. To understand the impact of single food odorants, a deep understanding of the molecular fundamentals of smell, the interaction of odorants with olfactory receptors, the respective physiology and molecular biology of olfaction is required.

Keywords: sense of smell, olfactory receptor, GPCR, signal transduction, food preferences, sensory sciences

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