Abstract:
Research has shown that food choices made by an individual is a result of a complex interaction of a range of factors. Flavour preference, an expression of food choice, is an output of these interactions. This paper examines the influence of cultural contextual factors on flavour preferences by taking aroma as a semiotic system. The attempt is to understand if the semiotic coding of food aroma is idiosyncratic or if there are predictable patterns. And if there are patterns, to uncover some of the rules that guide coding of meanings with food aroma.