New food culture created using taste sensor

Abstract

A taste sensor with global selectivity composed of several kinds of lipid/polymer mem-branes has recently been developed for transforming information on taste substances into electric signals. These signals are then analyzed by computer . The sensor output shows different patterns for chemical substances which have different taste qualities such as salt-iness and sourness, and shows similar patterns for chemicals with similar taste. The sensor responds to the taste itself, because taste interactions such as synergistic and suppression effects can be acurately reproduced. The sensitivity, reproducibility and durability of the taste are superior o those of the human taste sense. Moreover, human sensory expressions can be quantified using this taste sensor.