The healthy subject who agreed to participation in response to explanation of this study 18 years or older. Other eligibility criteria were that communication did not have a problem. Furthermore, it was assumed that nasal breathing and oral intake were possible.
During study period, there are behavior restrictions associated with COVID-19, therefore it is a female college student to have been obtained cooperation of the participation. A participant was women, and the age was 20-22 years old.
The participation in study request was treated with a study briefing session for 146 female college students. As a result, an agreement of the participation was obtained 40 people. However, there was the refusal of six people because the intervention day of the study became during menstruation. As a result, the number of people that we were able to conduct an intervention study was actually 34 people.
We planned subjects in 50 people. However, the number of cases decreased under the influence of COVID-19.
Odors of bananas (accuracy rate, 85.3%), boiled fish broth (accuracy rate, 82.4%), and grapefruit juice (accuracy rate, 70.6%) were easy to identify even when mixed with another food odor. However, the odor indices and accuracy rates were higher for the unpleasant-smelling bananas and boiled fish broth than for the pleasant-smelling grapefruit juice. Additionally, when the unpleasant-smelling boiled fish broth (VAS, 37.5 points) was mixed with the pleasant-smelling grapefruit juice (VAS, 80.0 points), the unpleasantness was even stronger (VAS of mixture, 15.5 points).
[Objective] Determine the extent to which humans perceive mixed odors of food. Additionally, investigate the correlation between food odor perception and the emotions that induce food aversion.
[Conclusion] Even when two types of food odors were mixed, each odor could be easily identified. This suggests that the ability to perceive food odors is deeply related not only to the strength and quality of the odors, but also to the emotions they induce, particularly unpleasantness.