Abstract
To gain recommendations for future dietary education, this study investigated the relationship between junior high school students' senses of taste and food consciousness/behavior. This first report shows the results of testing junior high students' "discrimination of five basic tastes," "discrimination of concentration of sweetness and saltiness," and "discrimination between sweetness and saltiness." First, the discrimination of five basic tastes test showed: 1. Compared to previous studies of female home economics students using the same materials and concentrations, our subjects were less able to discriminate all tastes, though they exhibited similar tendencies in their right and wrong answers. 2. The majority of the students could not discriminate bitterness from Umami (amino/nucleic acids). They frequently confused Umami with sweetness, salt, acidity and bitterness. Their ability to discriminate Umami was weaker than that of the other four basic tastes. 3. Boys could discriminate acid flavors less than girls could. Second, the test of discrimination of concentrations of sweetness and saltiness showed that 23.1% of students correctly discriminated different concentrations of both sweetness and saltiness, 13.7% of students discriminated sweetness correctly, 29.2% of students discriminated saltiness correctly and 34.2% students could not discriminate different concentrations of either sweetness or saltiness. Third, the test of discrimination of flavors of sweetness and saltiness showed that 53.3% of students correctly identified both sweetness and saltiness, 21.9% of students identified sweetness correctly, 13.7% of students identified saltiness correctly and 10.8% students identified neither correctly. The taste-test data of this study provide a basis for future dietary education, considering that junior high students increasingly choose their own diets as they enter puberty.
