Science of taste

Taste is usually the most influential factor in people’s selection of foods.

Taste is detected by the taste buds’ connection to the brain via nerve cells, which signal the sensation of sour, salt, sweet, bitter and savory.

Once triggered, the receptor cells send corresponding messages to the brain, which assemble the collective set of signals and compile the data into a taste and its relative strength.

Taste buds themselves are clusters of between 50 and 150 taste receptor cells. They are globular with an opening called a taste pore at the top. Each of them waits for food molecules of a certain type to enter the taste bud.

Many tasted substances are a combination of non-volatile and volatile compounds. In order for a substance to be tasted, it must be dissolved in liquid or saliva, which is 99.5% water.

When food comes into the mouth, bits of it are dissolved in the salvia pools and they come onto contact with receptors. Sweet and salt tastes are detected quickly in less than a second, because they are detected primarily on the tip of the tongue; in addition, they are usually very soluble compounds; whereas bitter taste are detected mainly by taste buds at the back of the tongue.

When tastes are mixed, each one show less intensity than when tasted separately. This is particular true with bitterness, sweetness and saltiness. The taste intensity of some complex foods might well be unpleasant were it not for this phenomenon.
Science of taste