抄録
An inquiry on the taste perference was made to people ranging from 6 to 79 years of age in order to find the tendency of the preference toward sweet, sour, salty and bitter tastes. Respondents were classified according to sex and different age groups. The taste preference was investigated by using principal component analysis and cluster analysis. The results are as follows:
(1) The contribution rates of first, second and third principal component were 58.0%,30.4% and 6.4%, respectively. The first principal component could be interpreted as a total degree of the taste preference, the second as the difference of the taste preference, by ages, the third as the difference of the taste preference between males and females;
(2) The results of the cluster analysis indicate that sweet, sour, salty and bitter tastes may be classified into three groups;
(3) The old and middle-aged people had a tendency to prefer sweet and salty foods which are special products in Japan, the young people had a tendency to prefer sweet and sour foods and also for all age groups, the taste preference was little for bitter foods. The factors of age and sex were observed to influence the taste preference.
