Publication Date

7-14-2026

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Foods

Editor

Koushik Adhikari

Volume

15

Issue

12

DOI

10.3390/foods15122150

Abstract

Regular consumption of excess sugar is linked to nutrition-based diseases, including gut problems, Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Increasing sweetness perception is a novel technique to decrease sugar consumption. This experiment compared the sweetness perception of sweetened and unsweetened almond milk in response to different virtual environments with music and visuals. 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 revealed 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 genres (p = 0.011). The results suggest that altering music and background may be a strategy to change sweetness and viscosity perception in unsweetened beverages.

Funding Sponsor

Molly and Gene Rauen Endowed Research Assistance Scholarship

Keywords

virtual reality; sugar-sweetened beverages; sweet perception; sensory analysis

Comments

This article belongs to the Special Issue Flavor, Palatability, and Consumer Acceptance of Foods: Second Edition

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Nutrition, Food Science and Packaging; Psychology

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