And Now There is A Sixth Taste

INDIANA(USA), AUGUST 3
How many basic tastes you can sense distinguishably? Most of you will say four sweet, sour,
salty and bitter, and a few better ones among you could add a fifth one savoury or umami. But a
recent research says that there are six, adding oleogustus to our pantheon of basic tastes.
Oleogustus is the name given to the unique taste of fat that the researchers at Purdue University in
the US had discovered after a series of taste tests among 102 study participants. The participants
were given multiple cups of solutions each containing a compound that tastes salty, sweet, umami,
bitter, sour or fatty and were asked to group them based on the taste sensation. The panelists
responded by successfully stacking the fatty acids together and separately from the other samples.
"The taste component of fat is often described as bitter or sour because it is unpleasant, but new
evidence reveals fatty acids evoke a unique sensation satisfying another element of the criteria for
what constitutes a basic taste, just like sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami,says Richard D.
Mattes, distinguished professor of nutrition science at Purdue University and one of the
researchers.
The researchers then christened the new sensation with the name oleogustus taking inspiration
from Latin, where "Oleo" is a Latin root word for oily or fatty and "gustus" refers to taste. (For a
new sensation) We cant use any words that exist, so were forced to make it up, the scientists
explain why they went for a name that is quite a mouthful.
However, you shouldnt associate oleogustus with the familiar taste of butter or fresh cream. It
simply isnt. Fatty acid taste is awful, Mattes says.I havent met anybody who likes it alone. You
usually get a gag reflex. But when added in small doses and mixed with other flavours, it can
improve the pleasantness of food just like tiny amount of bitterness in coffee or chocolate.
Classifying a new taste may hold implications for food product development, clinical practice, and
public health policy. If you understand the workings of a sensory system, you can use them for
purpose, Mattes says. Whether thats to improve the quality of the food supply, the safety of the
food supply, reduction of cardiovascular disease, treat taste disorders, there are any number of
possibilities here.
Source: www.purdue.edu