Taste, one of our five senses, plays a crucial role in our perception of food and enjoyment of eating. But how do we actually “taste”? The answer lies in a fascinating interplay between molecules in our food and specialized receptors on our tongue.
Taste Receptors
Our tongues are equipped with thousands of taste buds, located inside the tiny bumps covering your tongue called papillae. Each taste bud has 50 to 100 taste receptor cells that respond to different qualities, including salty, sweet, umami, sour, and bitter, also known as the five basic tastes.
Sweet: food that contains some form of sugar (sucrose, glucose, fructose, and lactose)
Salty: food that contains sodium chloride
Bitter: food that contains ingredients like caffeine or compounds from plants
Sour: food that contains some form of acid (acetic acid, citric acid, lactic acid)
Umami: umami is a savory, rich, or meaty flavor; most foods that taste umami contain a substance called glutamate (a kind of amino acid)
Taste Perception
Taste perception is an extraordinary composite and multiscale process that involves molecular, subcellar, cellular, and tissue-level actors of the gustatory system. Food molecules dissolve in our saliva when we eat and come into contact with taste receptors. The shape and chemical properties of molecules determine how they interact with the receptors. For example, sweet molecules like glucose fit perfectly into the binding site of sweet receptors, triggering a signal interpreted as sweetness. This process is similar to the active transport on cell membranes using carrier proteins.
While the five basic tastes form the foundation of our flavor perception, the actual taste experience is far more nuanced. Many factors contribute to the complexity of taste.
Synergy: in our daily life, we do not eat food with a single flavor; the interaction of different taste molecules can create “mixed” flavors
Temperature: Warmer food enhances sweetness, while colder food amplifies bitterness. For example, a cup of hot chocolate is sweeter than a bar of frozen chocolate.
Texture: the texture of food influences taste perception as well; the creaminess of cheese strengthens its savory flavor
Extra Facts
The spiciness from chili pepper is a pain sensation rather than a taste.
Taste buds aren’t just on your tongue. They’re on your throat, esophagus, and the roof of your mouth,
Taste region theory is a misconception; every taste bud has sensory cells that respond to all five basic tastes.
If you eat strawberry ice cream with your nose held, you can’t tell that it’s strawberry flavor.
Reference List
Clinic, C. (2023). What Are Taste Buds? [online] Cleveland Clinic. Available at: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/24684-taste-buds [Accessed 5 May 2024].
Ou.edu. (2022). Taste, Temperature and Pain Sensations Are Neurologically Linked, OU Study Finds. [online] Available at: https://www.ou.edu/research-norman/news-events/2022/taste-temperature-and-pain-sensations-are-neurologically-linked-ou-study-finds [Accessed 5 May 2024].
Pallante, L., Malavolta, M., Grasso, G., Aigli Korfiati, Seferina Mavroudi, Bojan Mavkov, Kalogeras, A., Alexakos, C., Martos, V., Amoroso, D., Giacomo di Benedetto, Piga, D., Konstantinos Theofilatos and Deriu, M.A. (2021). On the human taste perception: Molecular-level understanding empowered by computational methods. Trends in food science & technology, [online] 116, pp.445–459. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2021.07.013.
Simon, M. (2020). The Deliciously Surprising Science of Taste. [online] WIRED. Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/science-of-taste/ [Accessed 5 May 2024].
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