Olfactory cues are key elements of food identification, influencing acceptance or rejection prior to taste evaluation. The extent to which differences between novel and learned “safe” odours influence acceptance critically depends on a person’s attentional focus and metabolic state. Interactions between these factors thus likely play an important role in acquiring novel taste preferences, but to date remain poorly understood. We addressed this by investigating the impact of attention and hunger on perceived food odour identity. Participants smelled odours ranging from pure food to pure non-food, while instructions asked them to attend to either the food or non-food component and rate its perceptual dominance. We hypothesized that the attentional manipulation would enhance sensitivity to contamination of one odour with another. A selectively higher contamination sensitivity to the food odour during hunger than satiety (within subjects) was expected. Logistic mixed regression revealed that concentration of the attended odour in the evaluated stimulus significantly influenced the dominance perception of the attended stimulus (p < 0.001, OR= 1.09). The interaction between target odour concentration and hunger was marginally significant (p = 0.0864, OR = 2.717), hungry people were more likely to identify the non-food odour as food than sated people. Fitted sigmoid functions revealed that the points of subjective equality (PSE; where food and non-food are perceived equally strong) shifted depending on hunger level and identity of the attended odour. These findings highlight that participants’ attentional focus and hunger state can interact to shape their perception of food odour identity. These interactions may thus hinder or promote the acquisition of novel flavour preferences during attempted changes in eating behaviour, with important implications for interventions that promote public health and well-being. (Funded by: ERC STG 947886)