Sensory changes and preservation with age: Hope for the undernourished

Undernutrition affects around 32% of adults aged over 65 [1]. In 2007, 239 patients died of undernutrition, a condition that is badly underreported in hospitals and care homes [2]. Reduced food consumption could relate to changes in sensory perception with age [3]. Frequent attempts have been made to enhance food products for older adult groups [4–7], however understanding age-related effects taste, olfaction, flavour and texture perception would provide insight into enhancing older patient nutrition. In a series of investigations, detection thresholds, discrimination thresholds and just-about-right tests, were used to understand age-related sensory changes. This study investigated the perception of basic tastes, ortho-and retro-nasal flavour perception and mouth-feel characteristics in healthy older and younger adults.