What’s your taste preference??

• Good food is like music you can taste, color you can smell, there is excellence all around you
• Our ability to taste lets us enjoy delicious food and drink. Its fun !!
 5 flavours make up the taste

• There are 5 basic taste qualities: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (savory). Umami is meaty taste of
foods. It comes from 3 compounds: glutamate, inosinate and guanylate.

• There is a long-held misconception that the tongue has specific zones for each flavor. Instead, all tastes
are detected across the tongue and are not limited to specific regions.

Old Misconception
 The Science behind how we taste

It’s sweet!!

• Hundreds of taste buds cover the tongue, each of

which holds dozens of taste cells.
Tongue
• When a cell detects its preferred taste on the
tongue, it fires an electric signal to tell the nervous
system what it found.

• Finally, the brain detects which taste cells have

fired and turns that into the experience of taste.
Taste buds Brain
 Mechanism of taste perception

• Papillae are the little bumps on the top of the tongue that help
grip food while your teeth are chewing.

• They contain taste buds (tiny clusters of chemical sensors)

• Taste buds consists of specific sensor cells called receptors

(proteins). The receptor is like a space in a jigsaw puzzle
awaiting a specifically shaped food molecule that fits it

• The substances we eat and drink are collections of molecules

of various shapes and sizes, and with chemically-active
components. When these molecules are channelled into our
taste buds, they are recognised by receptors.

• A taste cell may have a receptor optimised to recognise

sodium chloride (NaCl), so when that molecule hits the
receptor, it reacts to send the ‘salty’ message.

• It is the geometric shape of incoming molecules that

determines how they taste.
Analogy to receptor
 Why people have different tastes?

• Although everyone has the same types of taste receptors, genetics dictate their
sensitivity to various food compounds, allowing some people to taste flavors more
intensely than others.

• Little variation occurs from person to person in the number and shape of papillae.

• People sensitive to strong flavors are often called “supertasters” and typically have
more taste receptors for bitter, sweet, and spicy flavors on their tongues.

• “Non-tasters” have fewer taste receptors and are typically less picky about what they
eat.

• About 40 – 50% of the population are considered average tasters who perceive all
flavors moderately.
 Why sugar taste sweet?

• Sweet-tasting substances usually contain

carbohydrates such as sugars like glucose, galactose
etc.

• The specific shape of parts of a sugar molecule fits into

what are called binding pockets in the receptor (the
space in the puzzle).

• The process chemically binds the sugar molecule to

the receptor protein molecule. This binding reaction
starts the process of sending the message to the brain
saying ‘this tastes sweet’.

• There are two specific receptors in the taste bud that

detect sweet tasting molecules: T1R2 and T1R3
 Sweetness Triangle

• For molecule to taste sweet, it must have 3 specific chemical features to form a triangle of just the right, called
Sweetness Triangle. Eg sucrose fits into this.
Sucrose
Sucrose
• table sugar, cane sugar, beet sugar or, usually, just sugar
• Carbohydrate
• Disaccharide (Glucose plus fructose)
Stevia
 Stevia

• Stevia is a herb from plant species Stevia rebaudiana. It’s a natural

sweetner

• Used as sweetener and sugar substitute extracted from its leaves

• It has no calories and zero carbohydrates

• Sweetness:
• Leaves: ~10-15 times as sweet as sucrose
• Extract: ~200-300 times as sweet as sucrose
 Artificial Sweetners

• Artificial sweeteners are molecules that have been specifically designed

in a laboratory to mimic the structure or activity that a naturally sweet
substance exhibits to trigger the same result in our taste buds.

• Since they are structurally different, they bind to our receptors much more
tightly. Thus, they are sweeter than natural sugar.

• Since each artificial sweeteners have different molecular shape, each have a
signature flavor.

• They don’t contain any calorie or energy because our body cannot metabolize
them. Some of them are low calorie, they are metabolized but their caloric
payoff is negligible,
 Why do some sugar taste sweeter than others?

• The perception of taste is a complex process influenced by various factors,

including a molecule's chemical structure.

• Each taste represents a grouping of chemical substances, usually with a

specific molecular structure or active molecule, that the receptors in taste bud
cells recognise as ‘sweet’, ‘salty’, ‘bitter’ and so on.

• The heightened sweetness is attributed to the specific shape and properties of

the molecules, which allow it to bind more effectively with the sweet taste
receptors, leading to a sweeter taste perception. Additionally, the way these
molecules are metabolized by the body can also contribute to their perceived
taste.
Saccharin
Saccharin
• Artificial sweetener
• Chemically- benzoic sulfilimine,
• No food energy and is much sweeter than sucrose, but has a bitter or
metallic aftertaste, especially at high concentrations.
• Used to sweeten products such as drinks, candies, cookies, medicines,
and toothpaste
• European Union, saccharin is also known by the E number (additive
code) E954

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Aspartame
Aspartame
• Non-saccharide sweetener used as a sugar substitute in some foods and
beverages.
• In the European Union, it is codified as E951
• Aspartame is a methyl ester of the aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide.
• First sold under the brand name NutraSweet; later under the brand name
AminoSweet
• However, because its breakdown products include phenylalanine, aspartame
must be avoided by people with the genetic condition phenylketonuria
• Under strongly acidic or alkaline conditions, aspartame may generate methanol
by hydrolysis. Under more severe conditions, the peptide bonds are also
hydrolyzed, resulting in the free amino acids
• Less stable than saccharin, may breakdown at 29.44˚C so cannot be used for
baking
• Approximately 200 times sweeter than sucrose, or table sugar
18
Sucralose
Sucralose
• 600 times sweeter than sucrose
• 3 times as sweet as aspartame
• Twice as sweet as saccharin
• Unlike Aspartame, it is stable at high temperature
• It is approved as non-nutritive sweetener
• In carbonated drinks, it is almost always used in
conjunction with another sweetener such as
aspartame or acesulfame potassium
Fun Fact
• Cats can’t taste sugars because they lack
the genes that generate sweet receptors.

• Dogs have a sweet tooth just like we do.

Although they don't have as many taste
buds as humans, they can taste
sweetness — and become addicted to
sugary foods just as easily.