Rebecca Ford

Contact

• workRoom B17 North Lab
  Sutton Bonington Campus
  Sutton Bonington
  Leicestershire
  LE12 5RD
  UK
• work0115 951 6685
• R.Ford@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

Dr. Rebecca Ford (Becki) leads the Sensory and Consumer Science research group, is Deputy Head for the Division of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics within the School of Biosciences and sits on the leadership team for the Future Food Beacon at the University of Nottingham. Becki has a background in industry with experience in Food Manufacturing, New Product Development, Consumer Insights, Global Sensory Panel Training and Consultancy within food, brewing, beverage and consumer goods sectors. She has a doctorate in Multi-Sensory Perception and continues to be fueled by a fascination of the complexity of our sensory systems and the subsequent impact on food choice and consumer behavior. Becki's research is multi-disciplinary, collaborating with scientists in Nutrition, Engineering, Computer Science, Brewing and Flavour Chemistry to name a few. Externally, Becki and the sensory team collaborate with the University of Adelaide (Australia), University of Florence (Italy) and Brock University (Canada). She sits of the board of the European Sensory Science Society (E3S) and is a member of the E3S taste sensitivity working group. She is also a member of the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) and committee member of the IFST's Sensory Science Group.

The Sensory and Consumer research group's interests include investigating;

• multimodal flavour perception,
• individual variation in sensory perception,
• the use of digital technologies to understand consumer behavior,
• sustainable consumer behavior.

Teaching Summary

Becki is programme director for the Post-Graduate Certificate in Sensory Science and module convenor for:

• Sensory Evaluation and Sensory Techniques,
• Consumer Sensory Science,
• Sensory Science Project.

Becki teaches sensory content for Food Science programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. At undergraduate level she is module convenor for Food Flavour and Advanced Sensory Science along with Prof. Ian Fisk, and contributes to Food Processing and Sensory Science, with colleagues Dr Jo Gould and Dr Qian Yang. At postgraduate level she contributes to teaching on Food Production Management and Brewing Science. She is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Authority.

Research Summary

Current research investigates:

• Individual variation in sensory perception with taste phenotype, genotype and thermally-induced taste,
• Understanding consumer behaviour: Investigating the use of context on consumer response; Exploring the use of smart technologies to connect consumers with their food.
• Understanding multimodal flavour perception: Investigating the nutritional and sensory impact of rare sugars; The contribution of hop aroma to beer flavour; Improving the sensory quality of low alcohol beer; Contributors of 'body' and mouthfeel in alcoholic drinks; Optimising flavour in gin; The sensory impact of adjuncts in beer.

Selected Publications

• HORT, J, FORD, R, ELDEGHAIDY, S and FRANCIS, S.T, 2016. Thermal taster status: Evidence of cross modal integration Human Brain Mapping.
• CLARK, R, LINFORTH, R, BEALIN-KELLY, F and HORT, J, 2011. Effects of ethanol, carbonation and hop acids on volatile delivery in a model beer system. Journal of the Institute of Brewing.. 117(1), 74-81
• CLARK, R, HEWSON, L, BEALIN-KELLY, F and HORT, J, 2011. The interactions of CO2, ethanol, hop acids and sweetener on flavour perception in a model beer Chemosensory Perception. 4, 42-54

• View all publications

Past Research

Past research includes:

• Multi-modal flavour perception: the effect of bitterness, sweetness, alcohol content and carbonation level on flavour perception in beer
• Instrumental analysis of flavour in-vitro and in-vivo to investigate physico-chemical matrix interactions,
• Functional magnetic resonance brain imaging (fMRI) to explore cortical response to flavour,
• Taste representation in the primary gustatory cortex using high resolution functional magnetic resonance brain imaging (fMRI) at ultra-high field strength (7T), to map fine gustotopic taste representations in the brain,
• Individual variation in sensory perception - investigating sensory and cortical differences (using fMRI) with PROP and thermal taste phenotype (Thermal Taster Status).
• Understanding the mouthfeel of black tea

• DIETZ, CHRISTINA, COOK, DAVID, WILSON, COLIN, MARRIOTT, RAY and FORD, REBECCA, 2020. Sensory properties of supercritical CO2 fractions extracted from Magnum hop essential oil Journal of the Institute of Brewing. 126(3), 263– 279
• MARIT NIJMAN, SUE JAMES, FRIEDA DEHRMANN, KATHERINE SMART and REBECCA FORD, 2019. The effect of consumption context on consumer hedonics, emotional response and beer choice Food Quality and Preference. 74, 59-71
• YANG, Q, KRAFT, M, SHEN, Y, MACFIE, H and FORD, R, 2019. Sweet Liking Status and PROP Taster Status impact emotional response to sweetened beverage Food Quality and Preference.
• KASPRZAK, MIROSLAW, WILDE, PETER, HILL, SANDRA E., HARDING, STEPHEN E., FORD, REBECCA and WOLF, BETTINA, 2019. Non-chemically modified waxy rice starch stabilised wow emulsions for salt reduction FOOD & FUNCTION. 10(7), 4242-4255
• ELDEGHAIDY, S, THOMAS, D, SKINNER, M, FORD, R, GIESBRECHT, T, THOMAS, A, HORT, J and FRANCIS, S, 2018. An automated method to detect and quantify fungiform papillae in the human tongue: Validation and relationship to phenotypical differences in taste perception Physiology & Behavior. 184, 226–234
• SKINNER, M, ELDEGHAIDY, S, FORD, R, GIESBRECHT, T, THOMAS, A, FRANCIS, S and HORT, J, 2018. Variation in thermally induced taste response across thermal tasters Physiology & Behavior. 188, 67-78
• IMOGEN RAMSEY, CAROLYN ROSS, REBECCA FORD, IAN D FISK, QIAN YANG, JAVIER GOMEZ-LOPEZ and JOANNE HORT, 2018. Using a combined temporal approach to evaluate the influence of ethanol concentration on liking and sensory attributes of Lager beer Food Quality and Preference. 68, 292-303
• SKINNER M, LIM M, TARREGA A, FORD R, LINFORTH R, THOMAS A and HORT J, 2017. Investigating the oronasal contributions to metallic perception International Journal of Food Science and Technology. 52, 1299-1306
• FORD, R A, 2017. Deciding Which Test to Use in Discrimination Testing. In: LAUREN ROGERS, ed., Discrimination Testing in Sensory Science: A Practical Handbook Woodhead publishing.
• HORT, J, FORD, R, ELDEGHAIDY, S and FRANCIS, S.T, 2016. Thermal taster status: Evidence of cross modal integration Human Brain Mapping.
• REBECCA FORD, 2016. Super-taster, thermal taster or sweet-liker: Where are we with individual variation in perception? In: Eurosense 2016: Seventh European Conference on Sensory and Consumer Research.
• CLARK, R, LINFORTH, R, BEALIN-KELLY, F and HORT, J, 2011. Effects of ethanol, carbonation and hop acids on volatile delivery in a model beer system. Journal of the Institute of Brewing.. 117(1), 74-81
• CLARK, R, HEWSON, L, BEALIN-KELLY, F and HORT, J, 2011. The interactions of CO2, ethanol, hop acids and sweetener on flavour perception in a model beer Chemosensory Perception. 4, 42-54
• CLARK, R, FRANCIS, S.T, BEALIN-KELLY, F and HORT, J, 2011. The cortical response to carbonation and its interaction with taste perception In: 9th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium.
• CLARK, R, BEALIN-KELLY, F, HEWSON, L and HORT, J, 2010. Bubbles in Beer: the impact of carbonation on flavour perception In: The 4th European Conference on Sensory and Consumer Research – A Sense of Quality.