It’s no doubt happened to you.
You head off to a movie, Church, or an evening show of some kind and make your way to your seat.  As you settle in, you quickly notice that a person sitting nearby, or worse, right next to you is reeking of cologne, perfume, or some other strong-smelling personal care product.
As much as you want to get away from this overpowering smell, you realize with dismay that you have nowhere to go. All the other seats are filled. Besides, it would be so rude to move!
Your hopes for an enjoyable event are dashed as the synthetic smells you are forced to inhale start to give you a nasty headache or worse, breathing problems.
Even if someone does not have an allergic reaction to synthetic aromas, the assault on one’s nostrils is still avoided by many who seek to limit chemical exposures of all kinds. I myself avoid going near Subway or the bakery of a Walmart, for example, as the fake food aromas wafting forth from the chemical infused bread, cakes and cookies that are baking are absolutely nauseating.
Chemical sensitivity to fragrances used by retailers is fairly common.
Chemical Fragrances to be Used in Food Packaging
Avoiding synthetic smells is about to get a whole lot trickier.
More chemical smells are on the way harnessed via an “invisible technology” which food and beverage companies hope will tantalize your nostrils as you shop, enticing you to buy, buy, BUY!
Steven Landau, Chief Technological Officer for ScentSational Technologies said:
“… the sense of smell has been the most neglected sense in brand marketing strategies. Of the five senses, smell is the most powerful in driving consumer preference, conjuring up memories and creating purchase intent. As a result, our customers [food and beverage companies] have been asking for a low cost technology to deliver aroma from the shelf.”
The fake food aromas are delivered to the potential consumer whenever a product is handled through a coating that adheres to the product packaging.
This patent-pending technology called “Encapscent” is applied as a microencapsulated coating (MEC) to the outside of the food or drug packaging. The custom flavored, FDA approved “food grade” coatings are protected by microscopic cells that are ruptured when the product is touched or picked up.  The scent can be released over and over again as millions of these cells are applied to each and every package.
Mr. Landau insists the coating is in compliance with food packaging regulations and is safe for use with beverage, food and pharmaceutical packaging as it does not come into contact with the food or drug itself.
What about a child riding in a grocery cart who picks up a box of cookies, sniffs the box and then sucks his thumb?
Bet that hasn’t been tested, has it? No worries. By the time the general public figures out the likely health hazards from these deliciously aromatic yet completely synthetic coatings, all the people involved in the development of this “invisible technology” will most likely be long gone and relaxing in Dubai, courtesy of a very lucrative and ScentSational IPO.
So now our children are to be guinea pigs not only for the artificial ingredients inside the package but also the artificial flavors engineered for release into the air and no doubt onto your hands via the outside of the package?
It seems that taking your child shopping will be getting a whole lot more dangerous. Looks like it won’t just be the folks in the deli section who are wearing latex gloves.
And, as the lady in the picture is demonstrating, a surgical mask would probably be a good idea too.
Sources
ScentSational packaging coating delivers food or drink aroma
Anyone else find that the more they avoid synthetic fragrances, the more sensitive they become to them? Because I never use any, I find them really horrible… I’ve never had any chemical sensitivities, but now I feel I can hardly breathe when I’m in a room full of them!!
My MIL has those automatic dispensers of synthetic fragrance going everywhere. I walk into her house and immediately want to run for the hills because there’s this overpowering chemical REEK! When she’s not around, I go and turn them all off (she can always fix it later). It means I really, really don’t want to be there…I just don’t get it!? Why not put around some nice essential oils or something if you want your home to smell better??
As for putting fragrances on food packaging… that’s just disgusting! Who knows WHAT extra chemicals people will be ingesting (as if the rubbish inside the packaging isn’t bad enough!!) and who knows what the long term effects will be!
Yes, it’s like when you get off junk food .. if you eat any after that it makes you really sick to your stomach where it seemed to do nothing before.
It’s like alcoholics .. they can drink a pint of whiskey and still walk steady and not slur their words but get them off alcohol and they become sensitive to it again.
Just because you don’t have a reaction to something doesn’t mean it isn’t harming you. It is best to have your body be sensitive to those things that are harming you rather than having it so toxic and overloaded that you have no reaction at all and are oblivious to the damage.
I’ve read thru all the other comments and you all make VERY great points. (love the bear scenario) Another point: This may work for the advertisers for the first few products of any given type, when it is unique, but if you take it to the point of every soup can in the isle broadcasting its scent they will loose the point of doing it. We can detect such small parts per million that those sents will linger and blend with the next set dispensed and so on till you won’t be able to destinguish one from the other. Then as you shop your nose will be so overloaded that you won’t even be able to smell anything. Yea it may work initally and make you hungry when you walk in but then you will become de-sensotized to it. When you are in the kitchen all day long with food that you quickly get to the point that you just don’t smell it anymore unless you leave the kitchen and then return. I do not think this will test well with the public but we could be surprised.
They can make dog poopy smell like baked apple pie, but I still won’t touch it!
@Michelle But then again, I’ve been disappointed with some of the compromises organic food companies have made with some of their products. As usual, we will all have to remain very vigilant.
@Michelle I can’t imagine that organic foods would utilize scent marketing for their packaging.
They would if the organic food was owned by a big corporation (ie Kashi owned by Kellogg’s)??? So know your labels and who owns them.
The clothes detergent, air freshener, & perfume aisles are torture enough! Now this!
This is just more incentive to buy things with only one ingredient, you know like: potato, carrot, broccoli…
Great idea…..laughing…..!
It can actually make my nose itch sometimes to be exposed to alot of synthetic perfume and laundry smells. Unfortunately, thus stuff is very difficult to get away from in our modern world.
Thanks for posting Sarah. It is absolutely outrageous that they have developed yet another way to assault our bodies with chemicals. It wasn’t bad enough that the thermal register receipts have BPA, and it has been shown that we can absorb it through our skin . . . now we have to be afraid to touch packages too. I am glad we buy mostly directly from farmers. This is a good impetus to move further in that direction.