Food Color, Taste, Smell, Culinary Plate, Flavor, Locale, and their Impact on Nutrition: Present and Future Multisensory Food Augmentation and Noncommunicable Disease Prevention: An Overview

Cognizant that ‘the world is one family’, this overview describes chemosensory characteristics of food and related issues that may enable global inequalities in healthy food consumption to be improved with a reduction in noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), preventatively. Past and modern aspects of food tradition are briefly described followed by titular chemosensory characteristics and their potential application to improving health in nutrition in the sense intended, including the culinary plate. Human-computer interface and food augmentation reality and commensal dining, in association with chemosensory properties, including sound concerning oral food processing, are described. Future research on arresting trends in the prevalence of NCD is suggested based on the literature. Visual cues for in-store food choice are discussed that potentially allow the consumer, through psychological processes and behavior outcomes, to be more discerning. Advertisements and store architecture per se are not discussed. The relatively high prevalence of anosmia caused by COVID-19 infection relative to non-infected subjects may alter taste and flavor perception and lead to changed dietary habits and metabolism. Most global consumers can practice the ‘how’ and ‘when’ to beneficially eat but food insecurity poses a global problem.

Keywords: Commensal dining, Food augmentation, Global NCDs, Hidden hunger, Marketing, Robotics, Visual cues.