Correlation Between Sourness and pH

Madolyn Whitmarsh
NTR- 422
9/12/17
 Introduction

To determine overall satisfaction and quality of food all 5 senses: smell, taste, sight,

sound, and touch are used. Panelists undergo the process of food assessment by including all of

these 5 senses to evaluate foods, this process is referred to as sensory evaluation (McWilliams,

2001). However, taste is arguably the most crucial sense involved in the perception of food, this

is due to the presence of taste buds. Taste buds have the ability to taste 5 basic tastes: sweet,

sour, salty, bitter and umami. The brain is able to distinguish these tastes due to electrical

messages (McWilliams, 2001).

Taste isnt the only crucial sense needed when consuming food. The sense of smell is

equally as important. The volatile chemical compounds that are given off from different foods

can also play a huge role in ones perception of food (McWilliams, 2001). These odors can be

the initial cue of whether someone will like a certain food or not. It is also important to realize

that without the sense of smell, the ability to taste food can be compromised. A common

example of this is when someone gets a cold.

Visual receptors are another one of the initial cues that a person will receive about a

specific food (McWilliams, 2001). Is the foods presence visually appealing or appetizing? If

someone was handed a plate of purple broccoli, would they react the same if it was a plate of

green broccoli? (McWilliams, 2001).

The purpose of this study is to first, test ones ability on perceiving the sourness intensity

of 4 varying grape beverages while being blind folded, and second, to determine whether the

sourness of each is associated with its pH.

 Methods

This lab involves 2 different tests. The initial test involves tasting a series of grape

flavored beverages to determine the intensities of each. This portion of the lab can be found on

pg. 8 of Understanding Food Principles and Preparation lab manual. To start, each participant

should take 4, 3-oz. cups of the varying grape beverages and label them with the symbol

provided by the instructor. Once, all samples are labeled, the participant must then be blind

folded and handed each beverage from an accompanying participant. The participant whom is

blind folded must sample each of the 4 grape beverages one at a time and record the sourness

perceived by each, #1 being the sourest and #4 being the least. The second portion of this lab

involves testing the pH of each of the samples using a pH meter. Each sample must be tested

twice for accuracy. Note, these samples must be at room temperature to be properly tested.

Ensure that in-between each sample the pH meter is being calibrated. This is done by simply

turning the meter to standby and rinsing off the probe.

Results

Table 1. Ranking Test

Ranking Intensity pH
Welchs 3.37 (3.40,
1- Most Concord 3.33)
3.54 (3.43,
2 Totally Juice 3.65)
3.57 (3.57,
3 Juicy Juice 3.57)
2.84 (2.92,
4- Least PowerAde 2.75)

Table 1, illustrates the ranking of sourness for each of the 4 samples. #1 being perceived as the

most and #4 as the least. According to this table, Welchs Grape juice was considered the most

intense, followed by Totally Juice, Juicy juice and PowerAde. Next to the intensity column are
the pH values recorded from each of the samples. Welchs averaged out to be 3.37, whereas

Powerade was 2. 84. Juicy juice and Totally juice averaged out to be similar.

Illustration 1. pH Values of Different Grape Beverages and the Effect on its Sourness

3.5
3.54 3.57
3.37
3

2.84
pH

2.5

1.5

1
Welche's Concord Totally Juice Juicy Juice Powerade
1 2 3 4
Intensiy

Illustration 1, shows the results written in Table 1. The grape beverage perceived as the most

intense had a pH of 3.37 (average between the two values recorded). The pH of the PowerAde

was significantly lower with an average pH of 2.84. Totally Juice had a pH of 3.54 and Juicy

Juice 3.57.

Discussion

Due to being blind folded, therefore having all visual senses compromised, subjects were

dependent on the sense of taste to determine the intensities of the 4 grape beverages. If

participants had seen each of the beverages before testing them, the perception may have been

manipulated. For example, a dark, opaque purple grape beverage may be perceived as having a

more intense flavor than a very light, transparent grape beverage. Visual receptors may

manipulate subjects to believing that the light, transparent beverage is watered down, making it

less intense. However, these observations seemed to be accurate when it came to recording the
results. The Welchs Concord grape juice was the darkest of the juices and turned out to also be

the sourest. The PowerAde had a very light transparent purple color and had turned out to be the

sweetest of all four. Looking at the ingredients of these beverages, Welchs contained actuall

contained grape juice as well as gluconate, citric acid, calcium lactate, and ascorbic acid. The

PowerAde contains ingredients such as: water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, dextrose, etc. Just

by comparing the ingredients, PowerAde contains a high-water content, and high fructose corn

syrup, which is known to be extremely sweet. Whereas, Welchs actually contained grape juice.

The ability to detect sourness is due to the presence of hydrogen ions (McWilliams,

2001). The last question being tested is if the presence of hydrogen ions has an association with

pH. pH is way to measure the acidity or alkalinity in food (McWilliams, 2001). Anything above

a pH of 7 is considered basic or alkaline and anything below is considered acidic. The 4 grape

beverages being tested were all under the neutral 7 pH. The Juicy Juice and Totally Juice were

very similar in intensity and came out to be close on the pH scale. Welchs had a pH of 3.37 and

was also perceived to be the most intense of the 4. PowerAde had the lowest pH of 2.84, making

it the most acidic. However, it was the least sour. pH measures the acidity or alkalinity of foods

and other products, but it does not measure sourness (McWilliams, 2001). Sourness is just 1 of

the 5 tastes perceived from taste buds. To conclude; sour is a taste, pH is a measurement of

acidity vs alkalinity.
 References

McWilliams, M. (2001). Foods: Experimental Perspectives (8th ed.).

Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice- Hall Inc.

Walter, J.M. & Beathard, K. (2015). Understanding Food Principles and Preparation (5th ed.).
Stanford, CT: Cengage Learning.