Events Diary
The BSF is delighted to welcome prof. Andy Taylor for his talk: "Predicting sensory properties from flavour formulations - Dream or reality?"
We are joined by Andy Taylor, who studied Biochemistry in Aberystwyth and Cardiff, followed by research in Berlin on radioactive pharmaceuticals for potential cancer treatments. He then joined the Food Science group at the University of Nottingham and focused on flavour research, which led to the development of the MSNose and many publication about aroma release during eating and the interactions between taste, smell and rheological properties that define the overall flavour of foods. Along the way, he set up a spin out company (Flavometrix) to apply the basic principles of flavour release to commercial situations and provided contract research to a wide variety of food, drink and flavour companies from the USA to Japan. In 2010, Andy left the University to focus on Flavometrix but an opportunity to join Mars Petcare R&D at Waltham to lead a large team was impossible to turn down and led to a further 6 years working on cat and dog flavour preferences. He is still working through consultancy with some long term partners and by supporting student and research groups at the University of Nottingham
Abstract
At the moment there is much talk about AI and how it is being increasingly used to predict outcomes in games like Chess and Go and in applications like protein folding or image analysis to identify tumours. It has also been proposed that AI could make flavourists redundant as it will ultimately predict the perceived flavour of a formulation from its chemical composition – a worrying trend for members of the BSF! This talk will analyse the issues around using AI in flavour prediction and the value of such programs if they are actually developed.