FOOD TECHNOLOGY

GE IV: Sensory Evaluation of Food

Chemical Dimensions Of Taste

Submitted by:
Disha Arora (1806004)
Arnab Kakati (1806019)
 THEORIES OF
GUSTATION
 The earlier theories as reported by Amerine and et al. were enzyme theory and Beilder’s
theory.
 Beilder suggested that any theory of taste must fulfill the following criteria :
1) The taste receptors respond rapidly to a chemical stimulus;
2) All tastants must be in a liquid (soluble) form;
3) A variety of substances stimulate the taste receptors;
4) The threshold concentrations for stimulation are not large;
5) The response to many substances remain constant over a long period of adaptation;
6) A water rinse rapidly reduce the taste response;
7) The receptors are the site for chemical specificity;
8) The presence of saliva is not necessary.
 ● THE IONISATION
THEORY
 The ionization theory developed by Faraday and Arrhenius led to the first taste classification;
i.e. the sour and salty taste are generally caused by substances that ionize in solution, whereas the
sweet and bitter sensations are elicited by substances that generally do not ionize.
 ● THE DUPLEXITY THEORY
 George von Bekesy proposed a theory of duplexity of the sense organs which identified rods and
cones with respect to vision, the inner and outer hair cells in the case of hearing, and the sensitivity
to touch felt through pressure and vibrations, heat and cold so on. At the time of testing this
theory,it was assumed that the sense of taste is mainly associated with the tongue and that of smell
with the nose.
 ● THE AH,B THEORY OF SWEET TASTE
PERCEPTION
 This theory was given by Schallenberger and Schallenberger and Acree . This theory explains
the stereo chemical fit that is thought to be responsible for the sweetness quality .
 According to them all compounds which bring about a sweet taste response possess an
electromagnetic atom A ,such as oxygen or nitrogen to which a proton is attached by a single
covalent bond. At some distance from the AH proton , there must be a second electromagnetic
atom B ,which again can either be an oxygen or a nitrogen.
 B system reacts with a similar AH which could explain why the sense of sweetness is a lingering
sensation.
 CLASSIFICATION OF TASTE

 There are five distinct basic tastes that is sweet, bitter ,salty ,sour and umami that have been
distinguished so far.
 According to Kiyoshi Toko,
• Sourness is produced by hydrogen ions of organic acids such as acetic acid, citric acids.
• Saltiness produced by sodium chloride.
• Bitterness produced by quinine ,caffeine and magnesium chloride.
• Sweetness due to sucrose, glucose etc.
• Umami produced by monosodium glutamate( MSG).
Figure showing different tastes.
 Sweet Taste
 Sweetness is a property of sugars and related compounds such as sugars, amino acids, peptides ,
proteins, Olefinic alcohols, nitro anilines etc.
 The amino acids which are sweet are usually optically active dextrorotatory like histidine ,
leucine , tyrosine , tryptophan and phenylalanine.
 The amino acids which are mildly sweet are alanine and glycine whereas serine is the sweetest.
Fig – Sweet taste perception
 SALTY TASTE
 Salty taste is represented by sodium chloride but the same response can be generated by certain
ionic compounds such as lithium chloride, magnesium chloride ,potassium chloride,
ammonium chloride.
 Sodium chloride is the saltiest sodium compound. As the size of the anion associated with sodium
increases, perceived saltiness decreases.
 Saltiness is a property of some electrolytes as well as halides , chlorides, iodides , sulphates and
nitrates which provide saltiness in decreasing order.
 It appears that cations cause salty taste whereas anions modify salty taste such as chloride ion is
the least inhibitory to the salty taste followed by citrate ions and the orthophosphate ions.
Fig- salty taste perception.
 Sour Taste
 The sour taste is elicited by a vast majority of organic acids such as acetic acids , tartaric acids ,
malic acids ,citric acid and lactic acid.
 Citric acid is judged as the most sour , fumaric and tartaric about equal and adipic least sour.
 These acids release positively charged hydrogen ions to produce a sour taste when it contacts the
receptors.
 There are many factors which influence the sourness such as nature of the acid group, pH ,
titrable acidity, buffering effects and the presence of other compounds such as sugars which may
enhance or depress sourness.
Fig- sour taste perception.
 Bitter Taste
 Three classes of organic compounds present in food are particularly associated with bitterness i.e.
the alkaloids, glycosides and peptides.
 Bitterness in tea, coffee ,red wine and some types of beer , cocktails and tonic water is considered
desirable.
 Earlier bitterness was tested by Quinone hydrochloride but now it has been replaced by pure
caffeine.
 Bitterness also occurs as a defect in many dairy products as result of casein proteolysis by
enzymes that produces bitter peptides.
Fig- Bitter taste perception.
 Umami Taste
 This is the fifth basic taste which is the response of amino acids especially glutamic acids and
this taste is described as umami which is derived from the Japanese word meaning delicious or
savoury.
 This taste is elucidated by glutamate such as MSG ( mono sodium glutamate) , di-sodium
glutamate and di- sodium guanylate. These substances are purine based 5’ nucleotides.
 In some foods they enhance the perceived sweetness, saltiness or other flavor characteristics such
as mouthfeel and thus improves overall palatability.
 Taste and chemical identity
 Taste is defines as a sensation of flavour perceived in the mouth and throat on contact with a
substance.
 Tasting food and its flavour gives a unique ability to the humans and animals to trace important
information about the quality of the food.
 However as with various biological phenomenon, taste responses are related to chemical
specificity.
 For example, there are taste differences between o-, m-, and p-tolylurea.
 o-Tolylurea is tasteless, m-Tolylurea is bitter and p-Tolylurea is comparatively sweetish. Hence
the chemical conformation and nature of a molecule or food item have important impacts on its
overall taste.
Effect of chemical structure of tolylurea on taste
 What causes taste difference in amino
acids?
 Scientists previously found that D-tyrosine compounds were sweet and the L-compounds bitter.
 The taste difference was related not to the optical rotation but to the stereo structure of that amino
acid.
 But scientists later showed how the introduction of various groups into the molecule affects their
sweet and bitter tastes.

D-tyrosine
 Taste of various amino acids
 The taste of amino acids varies mostly on the basis of their D- and L- isomers.
 It was observed by Ferguson and Lawrence inn 1958.
 They made an observation through experiments that the D-configurations of leucine, isoleucine,
valine, histidine, tryptophan, and asparagine were sweet, whereas the L-forms were not.

D-leucine D-valine D-histidine D-asparagine

 Taste difference between disaccharides
 Ferguson and Lawrence (1958) found that isomaltose (6-𝛼-D-gluco- pyranosyl-D-glucose) was
sweet whereas its anomer, gentiobiose (6-𝛃- D-glucopyranosyl-D-glucose), was bitter.
 They tried to find various physical factors that they thought might be controlling different
sensations of taste on two different disaccharides, but could not find any consistent pattern.

Isomaltose Gentiobiose
 What causes modification of sweet taste?
 Various chemical agents such as enzyme inhibitors, sodium azide, potassium fluoride, sodium
iodoacetate, and sodium cyanide modified the sweet taste.
 But none of the above mentioned chemicals completely obliterated the sweet taste.

Sodium Azide Potassium fluoride Sodium cyanide

 Taste difference between anomers
 The level of sweetness also differs from one anomer to another anomer of a saccharide molecule.
 𝛼-Galactose is reported to be more sweeter than β-Galactose.
 But on the other hand β-Fructose is comparatively more sweeter than 𝛼-Fructose.

β-Galactose and 𝛼-Galactose 𝛼-Fructose and β-Fructose

 Taste difference in solutions
 Upon experimentation, the sweetness of a 10% solution of 𝛼-D-glucose was found to be
somewhat equal or even more than that of 10.5% solution of 𝛼-D-glucose.
 Those results were verified by Pangborn and Gee (1961), who also noted that the ^-configuration
of galactose was significantly sweeter than the /?-forms, whereas the reverse was true for fructose
and lactose.

𝛼-D-glucose
 Tsuzuki’s rule of different sweetness of isomers

 Steinhardt et al. (1962) observed that the 𝛼-anomer of D-mannose was sweet whereas the β-
anomer was bitter
 From Tsuzuki’ s rule that the sweeter isomer has cis-hydroxyl groups on the carbonyl and
adjacent carbon atom (in the less sweet isomer the hydroxyls are trans), it was predicted that
the 𝛼-form would be less sweet than the β-form. This was confirmed by Tsuzuki and Mori (1954).

𝛼-D-mannose
 What influences sweetness of sugars?
 Shallenberger (1963) proposed that the sweetness of sugars is in- fluenced by hydrogen bonding.
 When hydroxyl groups, which elicit sweet taste, are hydrogen bonded, the ability of the
compound to cause a sweet taste appears restricted.
 As Shallenberger noted, this does not rule out the possibility that other parameters, such as
resonance energy, vibratory hydrogen, solubility, and rate of diffusion into taste-bud receptor
sites, may not also be related to the sweet taste.
 These various studies emphasize the high degree of physicochemical stereospecificity of the taste
receptors.
 What causes the sensation of taste?
 It was determined on the basis of experimentation upon 80 saccharin derivatives.
 Hamor (1961) suggested that a "lock and key" relationship at the receptor site is perhaps
necessary for taste.
 Among the many interesting taste alterations resulting from addition or substitution on the
saccharin structure was the observation that doubling the molecule produced a tasteless
compound.

Saccharin molecule
 Other dimensions of taste
 Other than the chemical dimension of taste, there are seven other dimensions of taste. They are:
• Pleasant taste (about pleasure)
• Healthy taste (about well being and nutrition)
• Sensed taste (about sensory perception)
• Moral taste (about social norms including ethics)
• Religious taste (about faith including religious food and meal rituals)
• Loving taste (about love or passion for particular foods)
• Trendy taste (about knowledge and style expressed through food or meals)
 References:
 Maynard A . Amerine, Rose Marie Pangborn, and Edward B . Roessler, Principles Of
Sensory Evaluation Of Food (1965)
 Sensory Taste and Evaluation by Eram s Rao
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki
Thank You