Demonstrating cross-modal enhancement in a real food with a modified ABX test

•Taste-aroma interaction between sucrose and vanilla was demonstrated in skim milk.•A modified ABX matching test was used as a non-scaling test method.•Compared to a scaling test, larger enhancement effects were found.•Both congruent and non-congruent aromas showed sweetness enhancement effects.•Sweetness enhancement was greatest with the congruent aroma in the non-scaling test. Given widespread concerns about sugar intake and health, manufacturers are reformulating their products to help address consumer demand. One common strategy is the use of non-nutritive sweeteners; however, these may come with undesirable bitter and/or metallic side tastes or temporal profiles. One alternative sugar reduction strategy involves leveraging perceptual interactions between taste and smell. Prior work suggests that congruent aromas (appropriate for combination with sugar) can enhance sweetness when added to certain foods. However, demonstrating such enhancement psychophysically is not straight forward, as the conceptual strategy used by assessors can influence whether or not enhancement is observed. Here, a non-scaling approach was used to test for such enhancement. Two simple extensions of the ABX test (namely, matching in ABCX and ABCDX tasks) were used to demonstrate the effect of a congruent (vanilla) and incongruent (beef) aroma on sweetness perception in sweetened milk. Our data suggest both flavors were able to cause enhancement in the flavored milk samples, but enhancement effect was greater for the congruent aroma when compared to the incongruent aroma (p