Abstract
Tastes interact in almost every consumed food or beverage, yet many aspects of interactions, such as sweet-sour interactions, are not well understood. This study investigated the interaction between sweetness from sucrose and sourness from citric and tartaric acid, respectively. A cross-cultural consumer study was conducted in China (n = 120) and Denmark (n = 139), respectively. Participants evaluated six aqueous samples with no addition (control), sucrose, citric acid, tartaric acid, or a mixture of sucrose and citric acid or sucrose and tartaric acid. No significant difference was found between citric acid and tartaric acid in the suppression of sweetness intensity ratings of sucrose. Further, sucrose suppressed sourness intensity ratings of citric acid and tartaric acid similarly. Culture did not impact the suppression of sweetness intensity ratings of citric or tartaric acid, whereas it did influence sourness intensity ratings. While the Danish consumers showed similar suppression of sourness by both acids, the Chinese consumers were more susceptible towards the sourness suppression caused by sucrose in the tartaric acid-sucrose mixture compared to the citric acid-sucrose mixture. Agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis revealed clusters of consumers with significant differences in sweetness intensity ratings and sourness intensity ratings. These results indicate that individual differences in taste perception might affect perception of sweet-sour taste interactions, at least in aqueous solutions.
Highlights
Taste is an important part of our perception of foods and beverages
Taste interaction effects between sucrose, citric acid and tartaric acid were investigated using a 2x3 full factorial design resulting in six samples in total
Panelists were provided with three sourness references as anchors on the 15 cm line scales used for sourness intensity rating
Summary
Taste is an important part of our perception of foods and beverages. Taste perception in humans is considered to consist of the five canonical basic taste qualities: sweet, sour, salt, bitter, and umami [1].These basic taste qualities interact in almost every consumed food or beverage [2]. Taste is an important part of our perception of foods and beverages. Taste perception in humans is considered to consist of the five canonical basic taste qualities: sweet, sour, salt, bitter, and umami [1]. These basic taste qualities interact in almost every consumed food or beverage [2]. Taste interactions occur when at least two tastants are presented simultaneously and affect the perception of each other. Taste interactions can either be enhancing or suppressing, depending on both the taste quality, specific tastants in play, and tastant concentrations [3,4]. Even though the interactions between tastes have been extensively researched and reviewed [3,4,5], the mechanisms are still not well understood [6]
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