The 16th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium was held in Philadelphia, United States between 17th and 21st of August and was attended by over 1,200 academics and industry researchers. The RESTRUCTURE team shared findings from the recently completed RCT, presenting a series of talks during the different parallel and plenary sessions.

Prof. Markus Stieger presented an invited keynote lecture entitled: “Chew on it! From Food Structure to Perception, Digestion and Health” which highlighted the importance of food properties such as food texture and the food matrix in food oral processing, energy intake and digestion. Prof. Ciarán Forde presented the primary outcomes of the main RESTRUCTURE Trial, highlighting that over a 14-day period, participants consuming a UPF diet with textures that reduced their eating rate had an average energy intake reduction of 369 kcal per day, compared to when the same participants followed a 14-day UPF diet with textures that promoted a faster eating rate.

Finally, PhD Candidate Marieke van Bruinessen, presented some secondary outcomes comparing of the impact of individual differences in eating rate on energy intake within the two test diets of the RESTRUCTURE trial. Findings highlight that both faster and slower eaters responded to the texture intervention, with a main effect of meal texture on eating rate and energy intake across all participants, regardless of their individual eating behaviours.

The primary and secondary findings from the RESTRUCTURE trial are currently being submitted for publication and we look forward to sharing more with you in the months ahead. For more information on the trial rationale, protocol, and hypotheses, please review the recent publication: https://doi.org/10.1111/nbu.70027