Biophysics of food perception

In this article, we present food perception across a range of time and length scales as well as across the disciplines of physics, chemistry and biology. We achieve the objective of the article by presenting food from a material science angle as well as presenting the physiology of food perception that enables humans to probe materials in terms of aroma, taste and texture. We highlight that by using simple physical concepts, one can also decipher the mechanisms of transport that link food structure with perception physiology and define the regime in which physiology operates. Most importantly, we emphasise the notion that food/consumer interaction operates across the biological fluid interface grouped under the terminology of mucus , acting as a transfer fluid for taste, aroma and pressure between food and dedicated receptors.