Givaudan-Roure Lecture - Association for Chemoreception Sciences

13 Poster [ ] Taste Hedonics & Psychophysics
UNDERSTANDING VEGETABLE ACCEPTANCE: ROLE OF
EARLY EXPERIENCE
Kennedy J.M. 1, Mennella J.A. 1, Beauchamp G.K. 1 1Monell Chemical
Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA
Although infants differ substantially in their acceptance of foods
during weaning, the source of such differences remains a mystery.
Recently, we have identified a particularly apt system to explore these
issues: the inherent flavor variations characteristic of infant formulas.
Within each of these categories of formulas are a number of varieties
that differ among themselves in formulation and flavor but the
differences between the categories, and, in particular, between the
hydrolysate and milk-based varieties in sensory quality (flavor) are
striking and profound. The present study tested the hypothesis that the
type of formula fed to infants would influence their acceptance of
vegetables that shared a similar flavor note (e.g., sulfur volatiles) with
the formula (e.g., hydrolysate formula). In counterbalanced order, we
evaluated 87 infants´ acceptance of pureed carrot on one testing day and
pureed broccoli on the other. Infants who were feeding a hydrolysate
formula consumed significantly less broccoli relative to carrots when
compared to those who were currently fed milk based formulas. Such
findings are consistent with previous research that demonstrated a
sensory specific satiety following repeated exposure to a particular
flavor in either formula or mothers´ milk in the short term. This
research was supported by NIH Grant HD37119.
14 Poster [ ] Taste Hedonics & Psychophysics
ANALGESIC EFFECTS OF INTRAORAL SUCROSE: THE
MORE THEY LIKE SWEET TASTE, THE BETTER IT
WORKS?
Pepino M.Y. 1, Kennedy J.M. 1, Mennella J.A. 1 1Monell Chemical Senses
Center, Philadelphia, PA
During infancy and childhood, preference for sweet tastes is
heightened and sweet-tasting substances can be analgesics. The goal of
the study was to evaluate individual differences in sweet preferences
and to determine whether such differences are related to sucrose´s
analgesic effects in 5- to 10-year-old children and their mothers. To this
aim, the preferred level of sucrose was determined by using a forcedchoice,
paired comparison, tracking procedure, and the analgesic effect
of sweet taste was determined by the Cold Pressor Test. As a group,
children preferred significantly higher concentrations of sucrose than
mothers. Ethnic differences in sweet preferences were observed in both
children and adults such that Blacks preferred significantly higher
concentrations when compared to Whites. Regardless of race, children
who preferred high sweet concentrations kept their hand in the cold
water significantly longer when sucrose was held in their mouths when
compared to water (p=0.002). These findings suggest that the analgesic
effects of sweet tastes may be more pronounced in those pre-pubertal
children who have heightened sweet preference. This research was
supported by NIH Grants AA09523 and HD37119.
4
15 Poster [ ] Taste Hedonics & Psychophysics
INFLUENCE OF CONCENTRATION ON TASTE-TASTE
INTERACTIONS IN FOODS BY ELDERLY AND YOUNG
Mojet J. 1, Heidema J. 2, Christ-Hazelhof E. 2 1Consumer & Market
Insight, Agrotechnology and Food Innovations, Wageningen,
Netherlands; 2Unilever Research and Development, Vlaardingen,
Netherlands
An increase in concentration of one of the tastants in a `real food´
might not only effect the perception of the taste quality of the
manipulated tastant, but also the other perceivable taste qualities. The
influence of concentration increase of sodium chloride, potassium
chloride, sucrose, aspartame, acetic acid, citric acid, caffeine, quinine
HCl, monosodium glutamate (MSG), and inosine 5´-monophosphate
(IMP) on the other perceivable taste qualities was studied in different
foods.Twenty-one young (19-33 years) and 21 older subjects (60-75
years) rated the saltiness, sweetness, sourness, bitterness and umami
taste of the food stimuli on 9-point scales. Repeated measures and
multivariate analysis showed that an increasing concentration of sodium
and potassium chloride diminished the sweetness more for the young
than for the elderly, but enlarged the bitterness, sourness and umami
taste in tomato soup more for the elderly than for the young. The
saltiness of ice tea was decreased with an increase in sucrose, while a
larger decrease in bitterness was found for the young than for the
elderly. An increase in sucrose or aspartame concentration in ice tea
also decreased the sourness. No influence was shown by an increment
of acetic acid or citric acid in mayonnaise. The increasing concentration
of caffeine and quinine induced a decrease in sweetness of the
chocolate drink. The increase in MSG showed an increase in the
saltiness of broth, whereas an increase in IMP led to a decrease in
saltiness and an increase in sweetness. Young subjects took advantage
of their sense of smell in the no noseclip condition.
16 Slide [ ] Taste Hedonics & Psychophysics
ACCOUNTING FOR BETWEEN-SUBJECT VARIANCE IN
DISCRIMINATION AND PREFERENCE TASKS
Delwiche J. 1, Liggett R. 1 1Food Science and Technology, Ohio State
University, Columbus, OH
The binomial statistic is typically used to determine the number of
correct discriminations needed to indicate a significant difference
between items. This statistic does not account for differences between
subjects, making it inappropriate to combine responses across subjects
and repetitions, which is often something researchers would like to do.
The beta-binomial model is able to account for between-subject
variance (measured by gamma), making such analyses possible. This
study examined panel overdispersion (gamma) for one group of
subjects (53-58 subjects per group, depending on stimuli set)
performing two replications of both paired comparisons (2AFC) and
paired preferences on the same stimuli set. Stimuli tested included fruitflavored
beverages (with different sucrose levels), and snack foods
(with different fat contents). Results showed that significant
overdispersion with one task were not predictive of overdispersion in
the other. Further, the stability of gamma across discrimination methods
(2AFC, 3AFC, triangle, and duo-trio) for a group of 103 subjects was
examined. Stimuli were cherry-flavored fruit beverages at two different
sucrose levels, and order of the discrimination tasks was counterbalanced
across subjects. Results indicated that gamma was largely
consistent across the 2AFC, 3AFC and triangle tasks, but it was higher
in the duo-trio task. In all cases, the use of the beta-binomial model
allowed for the combining of discriminations across subjects and
replications, increasing the discrimination power achieved for a given
panel size. This project was self-funded.