Each September, emissaries from some of the nation’s biggest food companies gather at Rutgers University’s New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, in New Brunswick, for a two-day crash course aimed at helping them decode the science of human taste. Attendees from brands like Nabisco and Chipotle, and from government agencies like the U.S.D.A., might learn to map the chemical flavor profile of apple juice in order to identify abnormalities by smell.
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