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Publication Date

Spring 2025

Degree Type

Thesis - Campus Access Only

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Nutrition, Food Science and Packaging

Advisor

Xi Feng; John Gieng; Valerie Carr

Abstract

Regular consumption of excess sugar is linked to multiple nutrition-based diseases. While sugar replacement strategies do exist, they may not be effective substitutes as they fail to mimic taste and cannot be heated in the same manner as sugars. Increasing sweetness perception is an alternative solution for lowering sugar consumption. This experiment tested for alterations in the sweetness perception of sweetened and unsweetened almond milk in different virtual environments. Two music types, the classical song Goldberg Variations, BMV. 998- Variation 13 and a jazz song generated by AI were used. Additionally, fall and spring forest backgrounds were generated by the Blockade Labs 3D image generator. Each participant tasted sweetened and unsweetened almond milk in music only, background only, and combination music and background environments. Results reveal significant differences in sweetness ratings for music type (p=0.015) and between milk types (p<0.001). Viscosity rating differed significantly between backgrounds (p=0.04) and by milk type (p<0.001). Liking ratings varied significantly between backgrounds (p<0.001) and between music (p=0.011). The results suggest that altering music and background may be a strategy to change sweetness and viscosity perception in unsweetened beverages. These results can be used by product developers to help identify factors which influence product acceptability.

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