Abstract
Purpose: Food ingredients contain a variety of flavors. Some smell or taste component of food is suprathreshold, other is subthreshold. Bitter taste is a taste quality that is avoided innately, and its aftertaste is known to be long lasting. We hypothesized that subthresold bitter taste lead to some stimuli but are not to be perceived as bitter. Therefore, in this study, the effects of subthreshold bitter taste quality on the perceived umami taste were investigated using human sensory evaluation.
Method: For sensory evaluation, 100mm Visual analogue scale was used. The subjects were male or female aged 19-20. The samples were mixed with an aqueous solution at room temperature. Naringin or quinine sulfate was used as a bitter ingredient. Monosodium glutamate was used as an umami ingredient. Commercially available bonito flavor seasoning was used as one of the food flavor.
Results: Umami taste intensity tended to be enhanced by subthreshold quinine sulfate but not by naringin. In the effects of subthresold quinine sulfate in food ingredient, subthreshold quinine sulfate significantly enhanced umami taste intensity but did not bonito flavor. In the umami aftertaste test, subthreshold quinine sulfate significantly extended the length of umami aftertaste. Thus, the subthreshold bitter taste is suggested to enhance the strength of umami taste in food and extend the umami aftertaste.
