There *Is* Accounting for Taste, Research Firm Claims

Dutch market research agency DervalResearch has claimed it has found a link between the perception of taste and an individual's job and hobbies, which it is calling the Hormonal Fingerprint.

The firm conducted scientific research on 500 people from more than 25 countries and concluded that perception, skills and physical traits are determined by an individual's hormones before they are born.

'Based on this Hormonal Fingerprint, we can predict an individual's preferred food, beverage, colour and shapes as well as his perfect matching job, hobby or even partner,' stated President and Research Director, Professor Diana Derval.

Derval cited an example uncovered by the research which demonstrated that nurses and rugby men are more likely to be non-tasters - which means they host fewer taste buds on their tongue and can therefore eat or drink almost anything including bitter, spicy and very sweet food. Alternatively, entrepreneurs and ballerinas were found to be 'super-tasters' and more picky with food.

Client Vidya Sagar Gannamani at Philips added that the findings offer endless opportunities in the field of marketing, new product development and commercialization. 'This remarkable biological fact explains why our perception of taste is at the same time unique and predictable,' she said.

Amsterdam-based DervalResearch was founded in 2006 to utilise the latest scientific breakthroughs in behavioural neuroscience, and is on the web at www.derval-research.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.