Measuring food reward and the transfer effect of sensory specific satiety

Abstract

The main objectives of our study were (1) to compare several direct and indirect measures of liking and wanting for food and thereby (2) investigating the transfer effect of sensory specific satiety (SSS) for sweet and savory taste to other foods. We used a cross-over design whereby 61 healthy, unrestrained subjects (19M/42F), with a mean age of 21.9 (SD 3.1)y and a mean BMI of 21.7 (SD 1.5) kg/m² were offered a standardized amount of rice meal with either a sweet or savory taste. Afterwards, liking and wanting for 16 snack products, varying in taste (sweet/savory) and fat (high/low), were assessed. Method 1 assessed ad libitum intake, method 2 the willingness to work for access, and method 3 explicit and implicit responses to photographic food stimuli. All the methods used showed a similar pattern of results; after eating a preload with a certain taste, the liking and wanting of snacks with a similar taste were less than for snacks with a dissimilar taste. This transfer effect was not equipotent for sweet and savory tastes. It appears that in young, healthy adults, savory taste has a stronger modulating effect on subsequent food choice than sweet.