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Dollars and scents: commercial opportunities in olfaction and taste

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Abstract

Research successes over the past decade have provided a broad outline of the neuroscience of olfaction and taste. Our understanding of these systems now spans the molecular to the psychological. It will soon reach critical mass and begin to generate a variety of practical applications with commercial potential. Given the ubiquity of smell and taste and their importance to health, nutrition and quality of life, these applications could have a major impact on consumer product markets and create entirely new ones. Sensory biotechnology could be the first post-genomic application to break through to the consumer market. We describe odor modulation technologies with implications for food intake, health care and other arenas. Our deeper understanding of olfaction and taste in animal behavior and reproduction provides opportunities in pest control and animal husbandry, where environmentally neutral interventions are much in demand.

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Figure 1: Examples of possible odor modulation technologies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sense of Smell Institute, 145 E. 32nd Street, New York, 10016-6002, New York, USA

    Avery N. Gilbert

  2. Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, 10027, New York, USA

    Stuart Firestein

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  1. Avery N. Gilbert
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  2. Stuart Firestein
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Correspondence to Stuart Firestein.

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Gilbert, A., Firestein, S. Dollars and scents: commercial opportunities in olfaction and taste. Nat Neurosci 5 (Suppl 11), 1043–1045 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn937

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn937

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