The influence of ageing on supra-threshold intensity perception of NaCl, KCl, sucrose, aspartame, acetic acid, citric acid, caffeine, quinine HCl, monosodium glutamate (MSG) and inosine 5'-monophosphate (IMP) dissolved in water and in 'regular' product was studied in 21 young (19-33 years) and 21 elderly (60-75 years) persons. While the relative perception (intensity discrimination) seems to be remarkably resistant to the effect of ageing, the absolute perception (intensity rating) decreased with age for all tastants in water, but only for the salty and sweet tastants in product. When assessed while wearing a nose clip, only the perception of salty tastants was diminished with age. The slopes of the psychophysical functions were flatter in the elderly than in the young for the sweet, bitter and umami tastants in water, and for the sour tastants in product only. The age effects found were almost exclusively generic and never compound-specific within a taste. This study indicates that the relevance of determining intensities of tastants dissolved in water for the 'real life' perception of taste in complex food is rather limited.

No abstract

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.

No abstract

No abstract