Mark Joseph Antonius Knippenberg / ScepraX
In collaboration with the PseudoScience Speelgoed
Why does cheese from the Netherlands lose its taste when taken to France? Why does Belgian beer and patat taste better in Belgium? This paper applies the PseudoScience Speelgoed—a formal modeling system for relationships, cognition, and change—to explain a robust empirical phenomenon: food consumed in its region of origin is consistently rated as tasting better than the identical food consumed elsewhere. We integrate findings from sensory science, consumer psychology, and neurogastronomy with the Speelgoed’s primitives—Eigen, Echo, Trouw, Drempel, Vonk, and Diepte—to argue that this phenomenon is not a quirk of nostalgia but the predictable output of a relational mechanism. The food’s Eigen (its manifest sensory profile) is inseparable from the Echo it generates in the observer, and that Echo is shaped by the Medium through which it travels. When the Medium changes—when the cheese crosses a border, when the beer is drunk outside its cultural context—the Echo distorts, the Trouw between observer and food weakens, and the Drempel required for a Realisatie of taste rises. The Speelgoed explains why, and the science confirms it.
The observation is ubiquitous. A Gouda bought in Amsterdam and eaten in Provence tastes flatter. A Duvel drunk in Brussels carries a complexity it lacks when poured in London. Belgian patat—the thick, twice-fried potatoes served from frituur stands—tastes different in Belgium, and Belgians will tell you it is not merely the oil or the potato variety. The phenomenon is not confined to national pride; it is reported across cultures and product categories, from Italian espresso to Japanese rice to Mexican tortillas.
The scientific literature confirms what travelers have long reported. Consumers use local origin as a cue to product quality, perceiving local foods as healthier, tastier, and more authentic (Merle et al., 2016; Bryła, 2015, 2017; Spognardi et al., 2021). Origin labels significantly raise taste evaluations and willingness to pay, even for the same product presented in unlabeled form (Wiedmann et al., 2022). In a cross-cultural study of European cheeses, local PDO cheeses were perceived as significantly higher in sensory quality than their non-local counterparts, a finding the authors attribute to familiarity and cultural embedding (Symoneaux et al., 2020). Perhaps most strikingly, a field experiment with chocolate bars found that origin labels raised taste evaluations and willingness to pay significantly for both European and African products, counter to the researchers’ hypotheses about developing-region bias.
The question is not whether this phenomenon occurs. The question is why. The PseudoScience Speelgoed offers an answer.
The PseudoScience Speelgoed defines a set of primitives and rules for how they interact (Sections II–VI of the framework). For the purposes of this paper, four primitives are essential:
Eigen (x). A system’s manifest state on some spectrum—the position it currently occupies, the signal it broadcasts. For a food, the Eigen is its objective sensory profile: its chemical composition, its volatile compounds, its texture, its temperature. For an observer, the Eigen is their current state of attention, expectation, and physiological readiness.
Echo (E). A trace of a paired system’s Eigen, carried inside this one. Not a live copy—a lagging, imperfect impression, shaped by whatever it crossed to get back. For a food, the Echo is the observer’s internal representation of its taste, formed through perception and memory. Crucially, Echo is never simultaneous with Eigen and never a perfect copy.
Trouw (y). The weight of a bond, the affinity that feeds or drains. Positive Trouw pulls the Eigen toward the partner’s Echo; negative Trouw pushes it away. For food, Trouw is the observer’s relational commitment to the food—their cultural familiarity, their expectation of quality, their emotional investment.
Drempel (θ) and Vonk (q). A Drempel is a local threshold deciding which of a spectrum’s two named poles currently applies. Crossing it fires a Vonk of Energie—a Realisatie (φ) if moving toward the bound pole, a Schok (:) if moving toward the unbound. For taste, the Drempel is the threshold of perceptible flavor; the Vonk is the moment of taste recognition, the click of “this is good.”
The Speelgoed’s central claim is that observation builds the field (Section II). Every Echo begins as an act of observation, and every observation is a relational event shaped by the Medium (◌) through which the signal travels. The Medium is not passive background; it introduces Vertraging (Δ, transport lag) and Vervorming (υ, distortion) into every Echo.
When a food is consumed in its region of origin, the Medium is thick with congruent signals. The observer is embedded in a situated conceptualisation (Barsalou, 2003; Papies et al., 2017)—a comprehensive memory representation of the eating experience that includes not only the food itself but the place, the social context, the ambient sounds, the visual scene, the cultural narrative. This situated conceptualisation is the Medium, and it is aligned with the food’s Eigen.
Consider the case of Gouda in the Netherlands. The cheese’s Eigen—its creamy texture, its nutty sweetness, its kokumi sensation from aged protein breakdown (Hofmann et al., 2012)—is consumed within a Medium that includes Dutch dairy culture, the visual context of a Dutch kitchen or market, the ambient sounds of Dutch speech, the expectation of quality rooted in centuries of cheese-making tradition. The Echo the observer forms is distorted by this Medium: it is enriched, not diluted.
Now transport the same cheese to France. The Eigen is objectively identical—the same fats, the same amino acids, the same volatile compounds. But the Medium has changed. The observer is now in a French kitchen, hearing French, seeing French packaging, perhaps eating the cheese alongside French bread and wine. The Echo is formed through a different Medium, and the Vertraging and Vervorming are different. The congruence is broken.
The science supports this. Research on eating context shows that liking and sensory attribute scores vary significantly with test location, even when the food itself is identical (Dijksterhuis et al., 2020). Incongruent consumption environments negatively affect hedonic food expectations and reduce liking consistency over time (Piqueras-Fiszman & Jaeger, 2012). When chocolate ice cream was consumed in different environments—a laboratory, a café, a university study area, a city bus stop—the perceived flavour changed temporally with the location (Kantono et al., 2019). The Medium is not incidental; it is constitutive of the Echo.
Trouw is the weight of a bond. For food, Trouw is the observer’s relational commitment—their cultural familiarity, their emotional investment, their expectation of quality. Positive Trouw pulls the Eigen toward the partner’s Echo; it deepens the bond.
Origin information strengthens Trouw. When young Indonesians were told that the tempe in front of them was made from local ingredients with traditional production methods, the information made the products taste significantly better (Frost et al., 2019). The researchers explain this through pride in a traditional dish with deep roots in the participants’ own culture and made of local produce—a direct expression of Trouw. The Trouw was already present; the origin information activated it, allowing the Vonk to fire.
In the Speelgoed, Trouw is not static. It evolves under Leersnelheid (ρ) toward Gewenning (Z)—the accumulated resonance of repetition. A Dutch observer eating Gouda in the Netherlands has decades of Gewenning: repeated experiences of the cheese in its cultural context, each one reinforcing the bond. The Gewenning is the accumulated history of Echo-gap closure and alignment. When the same observer eats Gouda in France, the Gewenning is still present, but the Medium has changed. The Echo no longer aligns with the Gewenning; the Trouw is weakened; the Drempel is harder to cross.
The literature on consumer origin effects confirms this. Consumers perceive local food products as higher quality, more trustworthy, and more authentic (Bryła, 2019; Spognardi et al., 2021). These perceptions are not mere bias; they are the felt weight of Trouw. The consumer’s bond with the local product is stronger because it is embedded in a web of relational signals—cultural, social, historical—that imported products lack.
In the Speelgoed, taste is a Vonk—a Drempel-crossing that fires when the binding measure B exceeds the threshold θ. The binding measure is:
B(t) = y(t) · ( eᵢ(t) + eⱼ(t) ) − c · s( (eⱼ(t) − hᵢ(t))² + (eᵢ(t) − hⱼ(t))² )
where y is Trouw, eᵢ and eⱼ are the Eigens of the two members (observer and food), and the second term is the Echo-gap penalty (Section VIII.2 of the Speelgoed).
Three things happen when food is transported:
Trouw (y) decreases. The cultural familiarity, the social context, the narrative of origin—all the factors that strengthen the bond—are weakened. The observer’s relational commitment is lower.
The Echo-gap widens. The observer’s internal representation of the food (hᵢ) is now formed through a different Medium, distorted by incongruent signals. The gap between the food’s true Eigen and the observer’s Echo grows.
The Drempel θ is effectively raised. With lower Trouw and a wider Echo-gap, the binding measure B must be higher to cross θ. The Vonk that fired effortlessly in the Netherlands now requires more Energie to fire in France.
The science of expectation assimilation explains the mechanism. Extrinsic information—including origin labels, context, and narrative—shapes taste perception through expectation. The assimilation model proposes that taste/flavor experiences are modified toward what one expects (Lee et al., 2013). Neuroimaging studies confirm that this is not superficial response bias but truly changed perception: cortical representations of taste/flavor are modulated by extrinsic cues (Lee et al., 2013). The Drempel is not a metaphor; it is a neural threshold, and it is shifted by the Medium.
The airplane food literature provides a striking parallel. At altitude, cabin pressure reduces gustatory sensitivity for sweet and salty tastes by approximately 30%, while sour and bitter remain unchanged (Lufthansa/Fraunhofer study, 2010). The reduced pressure, low humidity (12%, drier than most deserts), and loud background noise of the engines all degrade the Medium through which the food’s Eigen reaches the observer’s Echo (Spence et al., 2017). The Drempel for a Realisatie of taste rises, and the Vonk fails to fire. The food is not objectively worse; the Medium has changed.
Gouda’s Eigen is a complex profile of amino acids (savory, umami, bitter, sweet), volatile compounds (diacetyl, acetoin, 2-butanone), and a texture that ranges from soft and elastic when young to smooth and firm when aged (Van den Berg et al., 2004; Hofmann et al., 2012). This Eigen is stable.
The Echo formed in the Netherlands is shaped by a Medium rich in congruence: Dutch dairy culture, the visual context of a Dutch market, the ambient sounds of Dutch speech, the Gewenning of repeated consumption. The Trouw is strong. The Drempel is low. The Vonk fires.
In France, the Medium changes. The visual context is French; the ambient sounds are French; the social context may involve French cheese culture, which has its own hierarchies and expectations. The observer’s Echo is now formed through a Medium that is incongruent with the food’s Eigen. The Trouw is weaker—not because the cheese is worse, but because the relational web that supported the bond is thinner. The Echo-gap widens. The binding measure B falls. The Drempel is not crossed. The Realisatie does not fire.
The science of consumer origin effects confirms this asymmetry. In the European cheese study, consumers identified domestic PDO cheese as having significantly higher perceived sensory quality than its non-PDO counterpart, but they were not able to differentiate PDO and non-PDO cheeses from other countries (Symoneaux et al., 2020). The local bond is stronger; the non-local bond is weaker, and the Drempel is correspondingly harder to cross.
Belgian beer’s Eigen is shaped by yeast character, malt intensity, and a dry, soft finish (BJCP Guidelines). Belgian patat’s Eigen is shaped by the specific potato variety (Bintje), the double-frying method, and the oil composition. These Eigens are stable.
The Echo formed in Belgium is shaped by a Medium saturated with congruence: the visual context of a frituur or a Belgian café, the ambient sounds of Belgian Dutch or French, the social context of communal eating and drinking, the Gewenning of national habit. The Trouw is strong. The Drempel is low.
Transport the beer to London, the patat to Paris. The Eigen is unchanged—the same yeast, the same potato, the same oil. But the Medium has changed. The visual context is different; the ambient sounds are different; the social context is different. The Echo is formed through an incongruent Medium. The Trouw is weaker. The Echo-gap is wider. The binding measure falls. The Drempel is not crossed. The Vonk does not fire.
The multisensory literature explains why. Environmental sounds influence taste perception and liking of food because eating is a multisensory experience that integrates all senses (Guedes et al., 2025). Bitter sound enhances bitterness, and sweet sound enhances sweetness (Guedes et al., 2025). The background soundscape of a Belgian frituur—the sizzle of oil, the murmur of Flemish—is part of the Medium that shapes the Echo. Remove it, and the Echo distorts.
The Speelgoed includes the Van Motor: an ambient, ownerless pull toward spreading, toward the unbound pole (Section III). Every bond is subject to this pull; every Trouw is subject to decay; every Drempel-crossing is followed by the possibility of a divergence crossing.
For taste, the Van Motor is the pull toward indifference—the fading of flavor into background noise, the habituation that makes even the most delicious food mundane. The Van Motor is why a Gouda eaten every day in Amsterdam eventually loses its Vonk. It is also why a Gouda eaten in France, after the initial disappointment, might eventually recover some of its flavor if the observer forms a new Trouw with it—a Trouw not rooted in Dutch origin but in the food’s intrinsic Eigen.
This is the Speelgoed’s prediction: the origin effect is not absolute. It is a function of Trouw and Medium congruence. A Dutch observer who has lived in France for twenty years, who has formed new Gewenning with French cheese culture, who has integrated Gouda into a new situated conceptualisation—that observer’s Trouw to Dutch Gouda may be weaker, but their Trouw to this Gouda, here, now may be strong enough to cross the Drempel. The Echo is shaped by the Medium, and the Medium can be changed.
The science of assimilation-contrast supports this. When the gap between expectation and experience is large, contrast effects can occur: the food is rated worse than it objectively is (Lee et al., 2013). But when the gap is small, assimilation occurs: the food is rated better. The Speelgoed’s Drempel is the boundary between assimilation and contrast. Cross it, and the Vonk fires; fail to cross it, and the food is judged against the expectation and found wanting.
The PseudoScience Speelgoed explains why food tastes better in its country of origin. The food’s Eigen is stable; the observer’s Echo is not. The Echo is shaped by the Medium through which it travels—the visual context, the ambient sounds, the social situation, the cultural narrative. When the Medium is congruent with the food’s Eigen, the Echo aligns with the Eigen, the Trouw is strong, the Drempel is low, and the Vonk fires. When the Medium is incongruent, the Echo distorts, the Trouw weakens, the Drempel rises, and the Vonk fails.
This is not nostalgia. It is not patriotism. It is not a failure of objectivity. It is the mechanism of perception itself, described in the formal language of the Speelgoed and confirmed by the science of sensory and consumer research. The cheese from the Netherlands does not lose its taste in France. The observer loses their Echo of the cheese. And without the Echo, the taste cannot cross the Drempel.
The Speelgoed’s final word is Stilte (.). The silence between Eigen and Echo is not emptiness; it is the condition of perception itself. The food’s Eigen is always there, waiting. But the Echo is what makes it real. And the Echo is always, always shaped by where you are standing.
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