Issue_1_2016

industry news
09
Unravelling the enigma of salty taste
detection
Public health efforts to reduce dietary sodium intake have
been hindered by an incomplete understanding of the
complex process by which humans and other mammals
detect salty taste.
Now, a multidisciplinary team from the Monell Center has
further characterised the identity and functionality of
salt-responding taste cells on the tongue. The knowledge
may lead to novel approaches to develop salt replacers or
enhancers that can help reduce the sodium content of
food.
“Understanding more about the mechanisms involved in
detecting salt taste moves us closer to developing
strategies to reduce the amount of salt in our food while
still retaining the salty taste that people enjoy,” said the
study’s lead author Brian Lewandowski, PhD, a
neurophysiologist at Monell.
‘Salt’ is a chemical term that describes a compound made
of positively and negatively charged ions; the most wellknown
example is sodium chloride (NaCl). The primary
process by which mammals detect NaCl, common table
salt, is well understood, and occurs via a sodium receptor
known as ENaC (epithelial sodium channel). The ENaC
receptor responds almost exclusively to sodium (Na+)
salts and is not influenced by the salt’s negative ion
(eg, Cl-).
However,
scientists know
that a second
salt-sensing
receptor also
exists, but much
about this
receptor,
including its
identity, remains
unknown. Like
ENaC, the second
receptor detects sodium salts, but it also is sensitive to
non-sodium salts such as potassium chloride (KCl), which
is frequently used to replace sodium in foods. Unlike the
ENaC receptor, this second receptor for salt taste is
affected by the size of the salt’s negative ion such that
salts with smaller negative ions taste more salty. For this
reason, sodium chloride, a salt with a small negative ion,
tastes saltier than sodium gluconate (Na(C6H11O7)),
which has a very large negative ion. In the current study,
published in the Journal of Neuroscience, Monell
researchers identified the taste cells involved in this
second salt taste mechanism and increased
understanding of how they function. n
Do Americans trust the food they eat?
Only one third of consumers think the agriculture
community and food companies are transparent, according
to new research from Sullivan Higdon & Sink (SHS)
FoodThink. The research appears in ‘Evolving Trust in the
Food Industry’, a white paper that is intended to arm food
marketers with insights into Americans’ knowledge and
trust of the food industry and how those perceptions have
changed from 2012 to the present.
“Food marketers should know that consumer perceptions
of transparency in the food industry are consistently
improving but there is plenty of room to grow,” said Erika
Chance, senior FoodThink researcher. “The good news is
that consumers are
turning to food
companies and
grocers for more
information
because they do
have an interest in
learning more about
the food they eat.”
Insights from the
white paper reveal a
consumer desire for
more information from specific trustworthy sources:
n
n
65% think it’s important to know how their food is
produced.
60% think farmers and ranchers are trustworthy,
making them one of the most trusted sources for
information on food production.
n A steady trend of consumers is turning to these three
sources since 2012: food companies, grocers and
food retailers and bloggers/social media.
“Consumers today are very perceptive and have access to
more information than ever. Many are taking the initiative
to read up on the issues facing food production,” said
Chance. “It’s important for the industry to be proactive in
their efforts to help educate the public because they have
the power to continue to build that trust.”
The research paper is a comparative analysis of
consumers’ changed food production perceptions since
SHS FoodThink’s white papers ‘Building Trust in What We
Eat’ (2012) and ‘Emerging Faith in Food Production’
(2014).
FoodThink white papers are built on proprietary research
conducted in 2016 and utilise the responses from more
than 2,000 US consumers of diverse demographic
backgrounds.
Download a free copy of the white paper with key
implications for food marketers, and follow the blog
at shsfoodthink.com. n
www.foodmagazine.eu.com issue one | 2016