The smell of freshly baked bread is used in supermarkets to encourage shoppers to spend more while a loaf in the oven of a house for sale is a trick beloved of estate agents, but the reason why bread triggers feelings of well-being has only now been explained by a team of Irish scientists.
The smell is almost universally loved and promotes a Pavlovian response in almost everyone because it prompts “odour-cued memories” at a subconscious level which catapult people back to very specific points in their childhoods, according to a piece of research by UCD food scientists published on Friday morning.
Through a combination of scientific analysis, an extensive poll and focus group-based research, Dr Amalia Scannell and researchers from UCD’s Institute of Food and Health zeroed in on what people love about bread’s distinctive aroma.
Source: Why do we love the smell of bread? UCD scientists find the answer
