Flavor enhancement as a strategy to improve food liking in cancer patients with taste and smell alterations

Abstract

Summary: Food liking is an essential component of the food intake experience. However, some conditions may alter the perception, thus the liking of food, leading to a reduced intake and increasing the risk of malnutrition. Particularly, in the context of cancer and related therapies, malnutrition is a major challenge with 25%–80% of cancer patients experiencing malnutrition at different degrees. The aim of the present exploratory study was to examine the effect of flavor enhancement on food liking in a group of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and with varying self-reported taste/smell abilities.The liking of four eggplant creams enhanced with either salt, lemon, garlic or cumin was evaluated in comparison to a reference eggplant cream by a group of 154 cancer patients. Patients were stratified in two subgroups according to their self-reported taste and smell perception abilities. Results showed that adding salt and garlic significantly increased patients' liking of the eggplant cream (P0.05), while adding lemon reduced liking compared to the reference (P<0.001).Enhancing food flavor is likely to be a promising way to increase food liking in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Future studies should include measurements of food intake during a full meal and over a defined period to examine whether increasing food liking helps to reduce risks of malnutrition by improving food intake in cancer patients.

Keywords

• Taste
• Smell
• Flavor enhancement
• Cancer
• Chemotherapy