The role of sensory science in the evaluation of food pairing

Abstract

Flavor pairing is the base of food product development. Moreover, foodstuffs are rarely consumed in an isolated manner, needing to study the sensory experience of food-beverage and food-food combinations. The field of flavor combination includes: the intrinsic arrangement of ingredients within a recipe; the combination of food products among them and with beverages; and the preparation of a whole meal. This review goes over the different definitions used to describe pairing and the sensory methods proposed in the literature.