CSA-SFC Joint Meeting: Understanding Mixtures

Consumers of foods and beverages don't buy chemicals, they buy perceptions, explained Terry Acree (Cornell University) during the recent joint meeting of the Society of Flavor Chemists and Chemical Sources Association at the Valley Regency in Clifton, New Jersey. And so, understanding the relationships between chemicals and perceptions has always been the challenge of flavor science. Aside from a few isolated examples, consumers eat no pure chemicals—everything that is perceived is a mixture of materials.