crossmodal interaction

In collaboration with Heston Blumenthal, the Crossmodal Research Laboratory in Oxford has shown that the flavours of bacon and egg ice cream can be switched by altering the background sound. For example the ice cream tastes more “bacony” with the sound of sizzling bacon, and more “eggy” with the sound of clucking chickens. In the above video, the flavour of oysters is shown to increase with the sound of seagulls and crashing waves. In testing the freshness response of Univlever’s Pringles the lab also confirmed that by altering the volume or frequency (above 2 KHz) of the crunching sound in real-time via a microphone and headset, people rated Pringles 15% fresher and crisper.

Head of research at the Crossmodal laboratory, Charles Spence notes that ‘taken together, these results suggest that our perception and evaluation of food and drink depends not just on the taste, smell, sight touch and sound of the food itself, but also on the packaging, and even on the environment in which those foods are eaten.’