Although food flavours are composed of distinct sensory
properties — odours and tastes primarily — there is ample
evidence that these properties are not perceived
independently. Interactions between flavour qualities can be
seen as reflecting repeated joint experience with those
qualities. As a consequence, odours take on the properties of
tastes, both perceptual and hedonic. Understanding these
processes provides insight into the ways in which consumers
perceive flavours, namely as synthetic, hedonically valenced
wholes that form the basis of food choice.