Abstract
If we think of sensory and consumer research as our home, we must see that every pillar comes from a different architect. Our home is not the masterpiece of one mind, it is the work of many. Our past is multidisciplinary, and our future will probably be too. In this number of Current Opinion in Food Science we reflect about our origins and invite a series of researchers from ten different backgrounds m build this special edition. But first, let us start with a little history.
The origins of sensory and consumer research as independent academic disciplines can be tracked back to the nineteen hundreds, where the first university courses of these disciplines stared. Consumer research probably has its origins in the early courses of Political Economy in the German Universities during the decade of 1870 [1]. At that time, marketing ideas were embedded in the field of economics. In those early days, marketing looked different and, of course, professors were trained in economics rather than what we call modern marketing today: marketing science, consumer behaviour and marketing strategy. Finally, in 1946 the Survey Research Centre (SRC) was established by the University of Michigan with the support of Rensis Likert, Donald Campbell and other well-known social scientists [2], after which time, the face of consumer research changed completely.