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The Science of Taste

Edited by Ole G Mouritsen

Noting that, in general, our understanding of taste is inferior to our knowledge of the other human senses, an interdisciplinary symposium, The Science of Taste, took place in August 2014 and brought together an international group of scientists and practitioners from a range of different disciplines to discuss progress in the science of taste.

The Symposium led to the following special collection of articles, published in the journal Flavour, which aims to provide a composite mosaic of our current understanding of taste.

This collection of articles has not been sponsored and articles have undergone the journal’s standard peer-review process. The Guest Editors declare no competing interests.

  1. Increased preference for fat and sugar or reduced taste sensitivity may play a role in overweight and obesity development, but sensory perceptions are probably influenced already during childhood by food cultu...

    Authors: Wolfgang Ahrens
    Citation: Flavour 2015 4:8
    Content type: Short report Published on:

  4. Flavour science is concerned with the sensory appreciation of food. However, flavor is not in the food; it is created by the brain, through multiple sensory, motor, and central behavioral systems. We call this...

    Authors: Gordon M Shepherd
    Citation: Flavour 2015 4:19
    Content type: Opinion Published on:

  5. Nordic Food Lab (NFL) is a non-profit, open-source organisation that investigates food diversity and deliciousness. We combine scientific and cultural approaches with culinary techniques from around the world ...

    Authors: Joshua Evans, Roberto Flore, Jonas Astrup Pedersen and Michael Bom Frøst
    Citation: Flavour 2015 4:7
    Content type: Opinion Published on:

  6. In the last 15 years, advancements in molecular biology have unraveled the proteins that function as taste receptors. There are at least five taste qualities that are consciously perceived, sweet, sour, salty,...

    Authors: Ana M San Gabriel
    Citation: Flavour 2015 4:14
    Content type: Opinion Published on:

  9. Some foods are known to have flavours that cannot be explained by the five basic tastes alone, such as continuity, mouthfulness and thick flavour. It was demonstrated that these sensations are evoked by the ad...

    Authors: Motonaka Kuroda and Naohiro Miyamura
    Citation: Flavour 2015 4:11
    Content type: Short report Published on:

  10. Flavour perception reflects the integration of distinct sensory signals, in particular odours and tastes, primarily through the action of associative learning. This gives rise to sensory interactions derived f...

    Authors: John Prescott
    Citation: Flavour 2015 4:15
    Content type: Opinion Published on:

  11. In this short paper, I discuss two interpretations of the implications of food reward for healthy eating. It is often argued that foods that are palatable and provide sensory pleasure lead to overeating. I dis...

    Authors: Per Møller
    Citation: Flavour 2015 4:4
    Content type: Opinion Published on:

  12. Taste is the chemical sense responsible for the detection of non-volatile chemicals in potential foods. For fat to be considered as one of the taste primaries in humans, certain criteria must be met including ...

    Authors: Russell SJ Keast and Andrew Costanzo
    Citation: Flavour 2015 4:5
    Content type: Review Published on:

  14. An understanding and description of our sensory perception of food requires input from many different scientific disciplines: in addition to the natural and life sciences, human sciences, social sciences, as w...

    Authors: Ole G Mouritsen
    Citation: Flavour 2015 4:18
    Content type: Editorial Published on:

  15. Recent studies have demonstrated that kokumi substances such as glutathione are perceived through the calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR). Screening by a CaSR assay and sensory evaluation have shown that γ-glutamyl-v...

    Authors: Takashi Miyaki, Hiroya Kawasaki, Motonaka Kuroda, Naohiro Miyamura and Tohru Kouda
    Citation: Flavour 2015 4:17
    Content type: Research Published on:

  16. Recent studies have demonstrated that kokumi substances, which enhance basic tastes and modify mouthfulness and continuity although they have no taste themselves, are perceived through the calcium-sensing recepto...

    Authors: Naohiro Miyamura, Shuichi Jo, Motonaka Kuroda and Tohru Kouda
    Citation: Flavour 2015 4:16
    Content type: Research Published on:

  18. There is a close relationship between an individual’s perception of umami taste and that individual’s physical condition. Our newly developed umami taste sensitivity test revealed the loss of only the umami ta...

    Authors: Takashi Sasano, Shizuko Satoh-Kuriwada and Noriaki Shoji
    Citation: Flavour 2015 4:10
    Content type: Short report Published on: