Mao Yuezhong, Tian Shiyi, Qin Yumei, Chen Shiwen
School of Food Science and Biotechnology, Zhejiang GongShang University, Zhejiang, 310018, China.
NPJ Sci Food. 2022 Jul 19;6(1):33. doi: 10.1038/s41538-022-00148-0.
The clarity of taste sensation interaction is a key basis for promoting the food sensory science research and its application to the beverage and food additive industries. This study explored the synergy and antagonism effect of sucrose-citric acid mixture and established an optimized method to determine the human sweetness and sourness interactive response. Sucrose-citric acid mixtures were evaluated by the "close type" question. According to the sensory difference strength curves and Weber-Fechner law, citric acid increased the sucrose's absolute threshold (0.424-0.624%) and weber fraction (20.5-33.0%). Meanwhile, sucrose increased citric acid's absolute threshold (0.0057-0.0082%) and decreased its weber fraction (17.96-9.53%). By fitting absolute threshold and weber fraction variation equations, the sweet-sour taste sensory strength variation models (SSTVM) were derived, which could be used to explain the synergy and antagonism effect of sweet-sour taste. According to the SSTVM, the interactive response to sweet-sour taste could be quantitatively calculated. The high coincidence between SSTVM and human evaluation (1.02% of relative error) indicated that it could be applied in the food industry, health management, and intelligent sensory science.
味觉相互作用的清晰度是推动食品感官科学研究及其在饮料和食品添加剂行业应用的关键基础。本研究探讨了蔗糖 - 柠檬酸混合物的协同和拮抗作用，并建立了一种优化方法来测定人类对甜味和酸味的交互反应。蔗糖 - 柠檬酸混合物通过“封闭式”问题进行评估。根据感官差异强度曲线和韦伯 - 费希纳定律，柠檬酸提高了蔗糖的绝对阈值（0.424 - 0.624%）和韦伯分数（20.5 - 33.0%）。同时，蔗糖提高了柠檬酸的绝对阈值（0.0057 - 0.0082%）并降低了其韦伯分数（17.96 - 9.53%）。通过拟合绝对阈值和韦伯分数变化方程，推导出了酸甜味感官强度变化模型（SSTVM），可用于解释酸甜味的协同和拮抗作用。根据SSTVM，可以定量计算对酸甜味的交互反应。SSTVM与人类评估之间的高度一致性（相对误差为1.02%）表明它可应用于食品工业、健康管理和智能感官科学。
