Background: Exposure to food odours increases the appetite for congruent foods and decreases the appetite for incongruent foods. However, the effect of exposure to a variety of food odours, as often occurs in daily life, is unknown.
Objective: Investigate how switching between sweet and savoury odours affects the appetite for sweet and savoury products.
Design: Thirty women (age: 18-45y; BMI: 18.5-25kg/m2) intensely smelled the contents of cups filled with banana, meat or water (no-odour) in a within-subject design with four combinations: no-odour/banana, no-odour/meat, meat/banana and banana/meat. Participants received one combination per test day. In each combination, two cups with different fillings were smelled for five minutes after each other. Treatment order was balanced as much as possible. The effects of previous exposure and current odour on the appetite for (in)congruent sweet and savoury products, and odour pleasantness were analysed. A change from meat to banana odour or banana to meat odour was referred to as switch, whereas a change from no-odour to meat odour or no-odour to banana odour was no-switch.
Results: The current odour (P<0.001), as opposed to the previous exposure (P = 0.71), determined the appetite for (in)congruent sweet and savoury products, already one minute after a switch between sweet and savoury odours. The pleasantness of the odour decreased during odour exposure (P = 0.005).
Conclusions: After a switch, the appetite for specific products quickly adjusted to the new odour and followed the typical pattern as found during odour exposure in previous studies. Interestingly, the appetite for the smelled food remained elevated during odour exposure, known as sensory-specific appetite, whereas the pleasantness of the odour decreased over time, previously termed olfactory sensory-specific satiety. This seeming contradiction may result from different mechanisms underlying the odour-induced anticipation of food intake versus the decrease in hedonic value during prolonged sensory stimulation.