Dr Andy Woods and his team of researchers at the University of Manchester, England, have discovered that background noise influences the taste buds, reports the Daily Mail.
While some airlines hand out noise-reduction headphones to first-class passengers, you may need to supply your own, since the study showed that the loud background noise of the jet engines dampens the taste of food, making it more difficult to detect saltiness and sweetness.
Researchers used bite-sized bits of food, including Pringles potato chips, Sainsbury’s cookies and Marmite rice cakes, to test their theories, and in a second experiment discovered that loud background noise made food seem crunchier. A third connected how much people enjoyed the background noise with how much they enjoyed their food.
With the results published in Food Quality and Preference, Woods noted, “This research is new. No one has directly explored how background noise can affect food perception.”
Many restaurants play ‘mood music,’ and one chef, Heston Blumenthal, is exploring the link between sound and appetite, by offering guests who order a seafood dish an accompanying iPod soundtrack of waves breaking on a beach.