Chlorinous flavor perception in drinking water

Abstract

Chlorinous flavors at the tap are the leading cause of customers' complaints and dissatisfaction with drinking water. To characterize consumer perception and acceptance to chlorinous tastes, extensive taste testing was performed with both trained panelists and average consumers. Taste testing with trained panelists showed that chlorine perception is underestimated by disinfectant flavor thresholds reported in the literature. However, trained panelists significantly overestimate the average consumer's ability to perceive chlorine. In addition, consumer perception seems to be influenced by the chlorination practices of the country they live in. Among water quality characteristics that may influence chlorine perception, temperature was not found to induce any significant change. The influence of total dissolved solids (TDS) on chlorine perception remains unclear and, as reported elsewhere, background tastes such as musty, may significantly impact chlorine threshold.

Mechanisms of trichloramine removal with activated carbon: Stoichiometric analysis with isotopically labeled trichloramine and theoretical analysis with a diffusion-reaction model

“…Chlorinous odor is the leading cause of dissatisfaction among persons who drink water in regions where chlorination or chloramination is employed for disinfection of drinking water (Piriou et al 2004). Trichloramine (NCl 3 ) and dichloramine (NHCl 2 ) are recognized as the compounds that cause the chlorinous odor in tap water; trichloramine causes a much stronger chlorinous odor than dichloramine (Kranser and Barret 1984).…”

Saberes sociais e a construção da preferência pela água de consumo humano

“…Thus, although new information are anchored to existing representation, such as benefits of water treatment, the perception of good water quality of the well/mine is preserved. On the other hand, mention of organoleptic characteristics as water rejection factors of the public supply system, such as "chlorine taste" was explored by studies carried out in different contexts [29][30][31] . In a study carried out by Carmo et al 31 , authors argue that representations about drinking water are constructed from the senses, especially taste and sight.…”

Relationship (or its lack) between population and a water and sanitation service: a study of users' perception in Vitória (ES) Brazil

“…Such interest is exemplified by work carried out in Australia (Syme & Williams 1993), Canada (Levallois et al 1998(Levallois et al , 1999Jardine et al 1999;Turgeon et al 2004;Jones et al 2005Jones et al , 2006Jones et al , 2007, France (Euzen 2003;Piriou et al 2004), India (Joshi et al 2002;Andey & Kelkar 2009) The general public also has responsibilities concerning the water consumed and, within this context, an important issue is how users understand the need that supplied water has to be appropriately treated before consumption.…”