Givaudan recently announced an agreement with neuroscience company Thimus, a developer of the TBox platform that provides a collection of data for exploring how humans experience food. According to the two companies, Givaudan’s collaboration with Thimus is the first extensive use of the TBox platform in the world of food, leading to Givaudan’s new programme Food Emotions.
Food products are being reformulated to meet new consumer demands and trends around sustainability, health, quality and emotion. Understanding and responding to consumer preferences is crucial, but there is a gap in understanding what consumers say and their experience and behaviour. This exploration of neuroscience seeks to investigate whether it can be used to close that gap.
In addition to having only consumers participate or answer a questionnaire, Thimus’ TBox provides participants with a headset to wear during taste tests, which records brain signals and measured against four key mental states; frontal asymmetry, engagement, cognitive workload and relaxation.
“Neuroscience has the unique ability to reveal how consumers truly feel about a product throughout the eating or drinking experience,” explained Fabio Campanile, Global Head of Science & Technology for Taste & Wellbeing at Givaudan. “The collaboration with Thimus marks a significant milestone in consumer understanding. It has the power to revolutionise how we co-create with our customers, increasingly satisfying consumers, and transforming the way the world eats while enabling more nutritious food choices.”
“We were immediately excited about the prospect of working with Givaudan because we see such a strong alignment in our missions of transforming food systems through a food experience lens. At Thimus, we’re humanising neuroscience and using it to redesign the foods we eat. We’re eager to support Givaudan in gaining an in-depth understanding of the motivations, culture and emotions that underlie these experiences,” added Mario Ubiali, Founder and CEO, Thimus.
Givaudan has used the technology in several customer projects and has reported successful results. Givaudan used Thimus’ technology in recent consumer tests on botanical soft drinks with two prototypes. Results showed consumers enjoyed one drink more than the other.
Givaudan have said the technology will be gradually rolled out within the company and be available for selective customer use in some regions.
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