◎國際新聞中心
The level of background noise affects both the intensity of flavour and the perceived crunchiness of foods, researchers have found. Blindfolded diners assessed the sweetness, saltiness, and crunchiness, as well as overall flavour, of foods as they were played white noise. While louder noise reduced the reported sweetness or saltiness, it increased the measure of crunch.
研究人員發現，背景聲音的大小影響食物的味道強度以及口感。蒙住眼睛的飲食者評估食物甜味、鹹味、脆度與整體味道，一邊聽著白噪音（指空間內所有噪音的總合）。噪音較吵時，說食物鹹或甜的人較少，說東西脆的人較多。
It may go some way to explaining why airline food is notoriously bland - a phenomenon that drives airline catering companies to heavily season their foods.
這可能解釋飛機餐為何總是惡名昭彰地淡而無味，讓空廚公司大量增加食物調味。
"There’s a general opinion that aeroplane foods aren’t fantastic," said Andy Woods, a researcher from Unilever’s laboratories and the University of Manchester."I’m sure airlines do their best - and given that, we wondered if there are other reasons why the food would not be so good. One thought was perhaps the background noise has some impact," he told BBC News.
聯合利華實驗室與曼徹斯特大學的研究員伍德說，「飛機餐總是被認為不好吃」，他告訴英國廣播公司新聞網，「我確信航空公司盡力了，考量到那點，我猜想，是否有其他影響食物不是這麼好吃的原因。一個想法是，或許背景聲音有一些影響」。
In a comparatively small study, 48 participants were fed sweet foods such as biscuits or salty ones such as crisps, while listening to silence or noise through headphones. In noisier settings, foods were rated less salty or sweet than they were in the absence of background noise, but were rated to be more crunchy.
在一份比較來說較小型的研究中，48名參與者吃餅乾等甜食或洋芋片等鹹點，一邊透過耳機聽安靜或是嘈雜的聲音。在較嘈雜的環境中，食物比在沒有背景噪音的環境中，較少被評等為較鹹或甜，但是被評為比較脆。
新聞辭典
blindfolded：形容詞，蒙住眼睛的。動詞與副詞皆為blindfold，例句：She was blindfolded and taken somewhere in the back of a van.（她被蒙住眼睛，用廂型車載往某處。）
bland：形容詞，淡而無味的。例句：I find chicken a little bland.（我覺得雞肉有點沒味道。）
catering：名詞，外燴，動詞為cater。例句：Which firm will be catering at the wedding reception?（這場婚宴的外燴公司是哪家？）
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