The sensory properties of foods are the most important reason people eat the foods they eat. What those properties are and how we best measure those properties are critical to understanding food and eating behavior. Appearance, flavor, texture, and even the sounds of food can impart a desire to eat or cause us to dismiss the food as unappetizing, stale, or even inappropriate from a cultural standpoint. This special issue focuses on how sensory properties, including consumer perceptions, are measured, the specific sensory properties of various foods, which properties might be most important in certain situations, and how consumers use sensory attributes and consumer information to make decisions about what they believe about food and what they will eat.
Keywords: consumer, descriptive; foods; sensory.