Using food comfortability to compare food's sensory characteristics expectations of elderly people with or without oral health problems

Abstract : Food consumption is by far the most important point where food's organoleptic properties can be perceived and can elicit sensory pleasure. Ageing is often accompanied by oral impairments. Those impairments may impact food perception by changing texture perception and the release of flavor components, which have a significant impact on food acceptability. The present study aimed at evaluating the impact of oral health on the perception of food comfortability in an elderly population. This was achieved by asking elderly people with a good oral health and elderly people with poor oral health to rate six cereal products and six meat products using a food comfortability questionnaire. Thirty-seven and 35 elderly people (65-87 years old) underwent either a cereal or meat session, respectively. The present study showed very few effects of dental and saliva status on food perception. For the cereal products, a significant effect of dental status was observed for one texture descriptor and one flavor descriptor, and a significant effect of salivary status was observed for two texture descriptors and one flavor descriptor. For the meat products, a significant effect of dental status and a significant effect of salivary status were observed on one flavor descriptor. For both products, no significant impact of dental or salivary status was observed on the general perception of food oral comfort nor on food bolus formation. Future studies exploring the impact of a broader set of oral parameters and potential adapting factors are needed to further explore the results of the present study.