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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.
研究人员发现，背景声音的大小影响食物的味道强度以及口感。蒙住眼睛的饮食者评估食物甜味、咸味、脆度与整体味道，一边听着白噪音（指空间内所有噪音的总合）。噪音较吵时，说食物咸或甜的人较少，说东西脆的人较多。
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.
这可能解释飞机餐为何总是恶名昭彰地淡而无味，让空厨公司大量增加食物调味。
"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.
联合利华实验室与曼彻斯特大学的研究员伍德说，「飞机餐总是被认为不好吃」，他告诉英国广播公司新闻网，「我确信航空公司尽力了，考虑到那点，我猜想，是否有其它影响食物不是这么好吃的原因。一个想法是，或许背景声音有一些影响」。
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.
在一份比较来说较小型的研究中，48名参与者吃饼干等甜食或洋芋片等咸点，一边透过耳机听安静或是嘈杂的声音。在较嘈杂的环境中，食物比在没有背景噪音的环境中，较少被评等为较咸或甜，但是被评为比较脆。
新闻辞典
blindfolded：形容词，蒙住眼睛的。动词与副词皆为blindfold，例句：She was blindfolded and taken somewhere in the back of a van.（她被蒙住眼睛，用厢型车载往某处。）
bland：形容词，淡而无味的。例句：I find chicken a little bland.（我觉得鸡肉有点没味道。）
catering：名词，外烩，动词为cater。例句：Which firm will be catering at the wedding reception?（这场婚宴的外烩公司是哪家？）
