Modeling Food Preferences Over Time

This paper reports the results of experiments designed to establish the nature of the functional relations between the measure of preference for a menu item and the time history of its previous consumption. Experimental data support the hypothesis that such a relation indeed exists and a mathematical representation of the phenomenon is feasible. Evidence is presented that the preference-time function is conceived by most people as being monotonically increasing and concave. There is a distinction, however, between preference measures defined on relative and absolute time scales, with the latter one accounting for the effect of repetitiveness and providing a link between the interpretation of food preference and frequency ratings of individuals. The experimental data indicate that the preferred frequency of serving is the locus of the maximum of a function that expresses the realization of the time-averaged value of preference over absolute time. Methods are outlined for the routine estimation of these functions from the results of simple questionnaires involving only three or four questions per item. The feasibility of such questionnaires for a large population and involving a large number of menu items is also established.