Sir, – Perhaps the chewers who are annoying Eoin Stanley on the train ( Letters , November 2nd) are aware of the findings of Prof Charles Spence and his team of researchers at Oxford University .
Spence, who is also founder of Crossmodal Research Laboratory, has established that eating with your mouth open is the best way to consume food, that it maximises flavour and allows you to derive as much pleasure as possible out of each mouthful.
The professor also points out that we have “been doing it all wrong. When it comes to sound, we like noisy foods – crunchy and crispy. Both crisps and apples are rated as more pleasurable when the sound of the crunch is amplified” .
So, to best hear the crunch of an apple, a potato crisp, a carrot stick, celery or a cracker, crispbread or a handful of popcorn, we should always ditch our manners and chew with our mouths open.
Spence also advises that people should use their hands to eat their food where possible. “ Our sense of touch is also vital in our perception of food on the palate,” he says. – Yours, etc,