Recent development of taste sensors

Research and development of taste sensors as a novel analytical tool

“… 19 , 20 ) They adopted a development policy focused on global selectivity, which aimed to decompose the characteristics of a chemical substance into taste qualities and quantify them, rather than focusing on individual chemical discrimination. 6 – 15 ) As demonstrated in Table 1 , and mentioned previously, the taste of foods is broken down into various types by each taste receptor in the human tongue. This approach differs from the selectivity principles of chemical/biosensors, which correspond to a specific chemical substance on a one-to-one basis.…”

“…4 . 9 – 15 ) All samples were prepared using 1 mM KCl as the solvent, and hence the sensor response obtained for 1 mM KCl solution was taken as the origin. The response of the lipid membrane sensor specific to each taste quality, as listed in Table 2 , is shown in the graph.…”

“…Although the sensor did respond to sourness, this effect could be eliminated by using the bitterness sensor developed in this study in conjunction with a commercially available sourness sensor, as previously reported for substances that contain both sweetness and bitterness or saltiness. 14 , 15 )…”

“…Because the taste sensor can measure six kinds of taste quality, the presentation of the taste of foods is also made using a radar chart composed of these axes indexed by each taste quality. 9 , 11 , 15 ) Thus, we are able to visualize the taste using this approach.…”

“…, taste sensors developed by the author. Many review papers on taste sensors have been published so far, 6 – 15 ) and hence, this article is focused on the measurement principle, its application to foods, and recent developments using modifiers for measuring noncharged bitter substances (xanthine derivatives) such as caffeine and theobromine. Due to their reliance on a potentiometric measurement method, taste sensors have limited ability to detect noncharged substances.…”