Discussion

The purpose of this experiment is about to identify the four basics taste and umami also to
identify the different taste receptor are most sensitive to different taste. The most influential
factor in actual and ultimate selection of food is taste. Some individual even though they are
not attracted to the smell or looks of the food, they still try it to see if they like or dislike the
food. When foods come into the mouth bits of it are dissolved in the saliva pools and they
contacted with the cilia, small hair-like projection from the gustatory (taste nerve) cells.
Many of the smell bumps that can be seen on the tongue contain taste buds. These surface
cells send taste information to nearby nerve fibres, which send messages to brain. We
commonly identify four basics taste sensations which is sweet, sour, bitter and salty.

The sense of taste affords an animal the ability to evaluate what it eats and drinks. At the
most basic level, this evaluation is to promote ingestion of nutritious substances and prevent
consumption of potential poisons or toxins. There is no doubt that animals, including humans,
develop taste preferences. That is, they will choose certain types of food in preference to
others. Interestingly, taste preference often changes in conjunction with body needs.
Similarly, animals often develop food aversions, particularly if they become ill soon after
eating a certain food, even though that food was not the cause of the illness - surely you have
experienced this yourself. Food preferences and aversions involve the sense of taste, but these
phenomena are almost certainly mediated through the central nervous system.

As we know tongue is one of the main receptor in human body to help people taste the
flavours. The tongue is an extremely movable set of muscles, which is well-supplied with
blood and has many nerves. The tongue muscles have an oblong shape and are covered with a
dense layer of connective tissue. Above this layer, a special kind of mucous membrane makes
up the surface of the tongue. The root of the tongue is firmly anchored to the floor of the
mouth. The other parts of the tongue can move freely. A strip of tissue called the lingual
frenulum connects the underside of the tongue to the floor of the mouth. When you close
your mouth, the tongue almost fills up the entire cavity of your mouth. Various muscles keep
the tongue “suspended” in the throat: Muscles and ligaments connect the tongue to the hyoid
bone (or lingual bone) in the upper part of the throat and to the voice box. The lingual
frenulum connects the tongue to the lower jaw. Some muscles even connect the tongue to the
base of the skull.

This experiment were run by four student and follow the procedure as stated. First, rinse
mouth by using distilled water prepared before tasting sample. Next, begin with the sample
from right to left. Next, put the sample in mouth and let it spread across the surface of tongue
especially at the sensitive area for taste. After that, if the sample taste like plain water, mark
(0). If not sure about the taste put mark (?).
 Based on the results obtained, from 4 individual point of view, the data gained based on the
code number given, the code number for 810, 649378, 933 is a salty taste. 483, 733 is umami
taste. 630, 608, 578, 743, 662, and 200 taste sour. For a bitter taste the code is 946, 426, 894,
384 and 684. For tasteless, 986 and 603. Lastly, 920, 741, 246 and 201 is sweet.

There are also some possible errors that might occurs during this experiment. First, as we
know the smell of the food might affect the flavour, said like if we had a flu we might not
taste the real flavour of the food and this also can affect our smell taste result. Another one,
one of our member taste the sour flavours that comes from the orange juice and forgot to
rinse mouth with distilled water for tasting the next sample, and this affected her result, so the
recommendations is make sure to rinse mouth using the plain or distilled water before tasting
another sample to make sure our tongue and taste bud clear from the past sample taste.