Pulsating tastants can reduce sweetener levels in foods
by Harold BultStimulation with continuously pulsating taste concentrations gives a higher taste perception compared to a continuous stimulation with the same average tastant concentration. This is the outcome of research carried out at NIZO food research within the framework of TI Food and Nutrition. By designing foods that create a pulsating tastant experience in the mouth, sugar and salt levels can be reduced while retaining the same perception as with the original foodstuffs.
The food industry continuously searches for ways to reduce sugar or salt levels while retaining the same perception of the foodstuffs. Recent research findings have opened a new avenue to tackle the issue (Burseg et.al., 2012, Chem. Senses 37: 27–33). NIZO scientists investigated the effect of concentration changes of the sweetener sucrose on the perceived sweetness intensity. They found that the perceived sweetness intensity increased with the magnitude of the sucrose concentration contrast.
By using a so-called Gustometer, a setup developed by NIZO scientist Harold Bult, the tongues of subjects were exposed to a continuous flow of water with pulsating tastants at well-defined concentrations. The pulsatile stimulus with the highest concentration difference (average sucrose concentration: 60 g/L) was rated as the sweetest, in spite of the fact that the gross sucrose concentrations were identical over stimuli. Moreover, this stimulus was rated equally sweet as a continuous reference of 70 g/L sucrose.
In subsequent studies, tastant distributions in foods were optimized to achieve similar tastant pulsation in the mouth. By using this technique, substantial salt- and sugar reductions were achieved in a variety of foods without affecting the perceived taste intensities. Bult sees many opportunities “These developments enable food industry to further reduce sugar and salt contents without the use of tastant replacers.”