Rebecca Ford

Contact

• workRoom C03 Bioenery & brewing Science Building
  Sutton Bonington Campus
  Sutton Bonington
  Leicestershire
  LE12 5RD
  UK
• work0115 951 6685
• R.Ford@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

Dr. Rebecca Ford (Becki) is a lecturer in Sensory Science and leads a research group at the Division of Food Sciences, 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. Becki's multi-disciplinary PhD research investigated the flavour of beer using instrumental/analytical measures, descriptive sensory methods and functional magnetic resonance brain imaging (fMRI) - in particular investigating the impact of carbonation of beer flavour perception. Becki's research interests include; investigating taste perception (using fMRI and taste cell signaling techniques); individual variation in sensory perception and oral somatosensation, multimodal flavour perception and flavour stability and perception in complex systems (i.e. beer and wine).

Becki is course director for the Post-Graduate Certificate in Sensory Science and contributes to teaching at both undergraduate and post-graduate level.

Becki is a member of the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST), committee member of the IFST's Sensory Science Group, member of the European Sensory Science Society (E3S) and E3S taste sensitivity working group.

Teaching Summary

Dr Rebecca Ford is course director for the Post-Graduate Certificate in Sensory Science and is module convenor for Sensory Science modules at undergraduate and post-graduate level. She is also… read more

Research Summary

Current research investigates:

• Individual variation in sensory perception with taste phenotype, genotype and thermally-induced taste,
• Effect of context on emotional response to beer
• Measuring mouthfeel perception and understanding individual variation in oral somatosensation
• Understanding beer flavour: the contribution of hops to beer flavour; the sensory quality of low alcohol beer; contributors of 'body' and mouthfeel in alcoholic drinks; the sensory impact of adjuncts in beer
• Taste cell signaling

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

Dr Rebecca Ford is course director for the Post-Graduate Certificate in Sensory Science and is module convenor for Sensory Science modules at undergraduate and post-graduate level. She is also accredited to deliver IFST foundation and intermediate level sensory courses and exams.

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).

• 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.
• 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.