摘要
Individual taste sensitivity has been claimed to affect food consumption and health. The methods used to assess taste sensitivity are various and thus, cause conflicting results. Thresholds, PROP intensity or fungiform papillae density only partly describe taste function. They may not relate to the actual taste perception in food because of compounds, concentration levels, or the measurement levels used. The objective of the study was to measure individual taste function extensively. With hierarchical clustering, we aimed to reveal taste sensitivity groups among people. Another aim was to investigate the associations between taste qualities. In addition, an overall taste sensitivity score was determined to analyze the generalized taste sensitivity.
The sensory study was carried out with Finnish volunteers (N = 205, age 19–79, 80% females). Citric acid, caffeine, sucrose, NaCl, and MSG were used as the prototypic taste compounds. The subjects rated the intensity of five concentration levels of each tastant.
Hierarchical clustering made it possible to analyze the complex data. The results of clustering were distinctive for taste modalities and the number of subjects in the clusters varied. In general, the clusters could be labeled as more sensitive, semi-sensitive, and less sensitive tasters. In bitter and umami tastes one cluster consisted of hyposensitive subjects. The membership in a taste cluster could be partly predicted by the sensitivity to other taste modalities. This study showed that a minority may be hyper- or hyposensitive to all taste modalities. On the other hand, the majority, the semi-sensitive tasters, can be a very heterogeneous group.
摘要译文
据称个人味觉敏感度影响食物消费和健康。用于评估味觉敏感性的方法各不相同，因此导致相互矛盾的结果。阈值，PROP强度或fungiform乳头密度仅部分描述味道功能。由于化合物，浓度水平等原因，它们可能与食物中的实际口味感觉无关。或使用的测量级别。该研究的目的是广泛测量个人口味功能。通过分层聚类，我们旨在揭示人们对味觉的敏感性。另一个目的是调查味道品质之间的关联。另外，确定总体味觉灵敏度分数以分析广义味觉灵敏度。芬兰志愿者进行感官研究（N \x3d 205，年龄19-79，女性80％）。使用柠檬酸，咖啡因，蔗糖，NaCl和MSG作为原型味道化合物。受试者评定每种促味剂的五个浓度水平的强度。分层聚类使分析复杂数据成为可能。聚类的结果对于味觉形式是独特的，并且聚类中的主题数量是变化的。一般来说，这些簇可以被标记为更敏感，半敏感，和不太敏感的品尝者。在苦涩和鲜味的口味中，一个群体由不敏感的受试者组成。味道群中的成员可以通过对其他味道形式的敏感性部分预测。这项研究表明，少数人可能对所有味道形式过度或不敏感。另一方面，大多数半敏感的品尝者可能是一个非常不同的群体。
SariPuputti[a];HeikkiAisala[a][b];UllaHoppu[a];MariSandell[a];. Multidimensional measurement of individual differences in taste perception[J]. Food Quality and Preference, 2018,65: 10-17