Development of a cultured cell-based human-taste evaluation system.

Objective quantification of taste intensity would be extremely useful for product development and quality control in the food industry. Progress has been made toward using the responses of cultured cells expressing human taste receptors as an indicator in evaluating gustatory intensity objectively. Effective utilization of such evaluation systems should not only provide information regarding taste intensities as perceived by humans, but also make possible the characterization of taste modulators to be used for commercial food products. Moreover, such an evaluation system should be also useful in advancing our understanding of the ways tastants are recognized by taste receptors.