Effect of concentration on taste-taste interactions in foods for elderly and young subjects.

An increase in concentration of one of the tastants in a 'real food' might affect not only the perception of the taste quality of that manipulated tastant but also the other perceivable taste qualities. The influence of concentration increase of sodium or potassium chloride in tomato soup, sucrose or aspartame in iced tea, acetic or citric acid in mayonnaise, caffeine or quinine HCl in chocolate drink, monosodium glutamate (MSG) or inosine 5'-monophosphate (IMP) in broth on the other perceivable taste qualities in these foods was studied in 21 young subjects (19-33 years) and 21 older subjects (60-75 years). The results showed that for each of these tastants, except for the two acids, increasing the concentration provoked significant positive or negative interaction effects on the perception of one or more other taste qualities of the product. Especially in the young, olfaction plays a larger role in the assessment of taste intensity than has been hitherto assumed. The elderly are less able to discriminate between the taste qualities in a product, whereas the young are more able to do so. Copyright 2004 Oxford University Press