Oil‐in‐Water Emulsion Exhibits Bitterness‐Suppressing Effects in a Sensory Threshold Study

Abstract

Little is known about how emulsion characteristics affect saltiness/bitterness perception. Sensory detection and recognition thresholds of NaCl, caffeine, and KCl in aqueous solution compared with oil-in-water emulsion systems were evaluated. For emulsions, NaCl, KCl, or caffeine were dissolved in water + emulsifier and mixed with canola oil (20% by weight). Two emulsions were prepared: emulsion 1 (viscosity = 257 cP) and emulsion 2 (viscosity = 59 cP). The forced-choice ascending concentration series method of limits (ASTM E-679-04) was used to determine detection and/or recognition thresholds at 25 °C. Group best estimate threshold (GBET) geometric means were expressed as g/100 mL. Comparing NaCl with KCl, there were no significant differences in detection GBET values for all systems (0.0197 - 0.0354). For saltiness recognition thresholds, KCl GBET values were higher compared with NaCl GBET (0.0822 - 0.1070 compared with 0.0471 - 0.0501). For NaCl and KCl, emulsion 1 and/or emulsion 2 did not significantly affect the saltiness recognition threshold compared with that of the aqueous solution. However, the bitterness recognition thresholds of caffeine and KCl in solution were significantly lower than in the emulsions (0.0242 - 0.0586 compared with 0.0754 - 0.1025). Gender generally had a marginal effect on threshold values. This study showed that, compared with the aqueous solutions, emulsions did not significantly affect the saltiness recognition threshold of NaCl and KCl, but exhibited bitterness-suppressing effects on KCl and/or caffeine.

Soy sauce odour induces and enhances saltiness perception

“…Some studies (Adhikari et al ., ; Sacks et al ., ) utilized ten to twelve panellists to evaluate sensory threshold of odour and flavour. As individual variations such as age, gender and race of the panellists affect the threshold results (Mojet et al ., ; Torrico et al ., ), results from this study should not be generalized.…”

“…NaCl concentration at 0.03 mM was selected because the salty taste is not recognisable at this concentration for most people (Wise & Breslin, 2013). Many studies also reported the detection threshold (the lowest stimulus concentration capable of producing a sensation without recognisable taste; Meilgaard et al, 2007) of NaCl between 3.42 and 15 mM (Paulus & Haas, 1980;Gomez et al, 2004;Piovesana et al, 2013;Torrico et al, 2015), which is much above 0.03 mM in water. Therefore, 0.03 mM NaCl was chosen to determine whether soy sauce odour could induce recognisable salty taste of NaCl in water.…”

Sensory Threshold Studies of Picrocrocin, the Major Bitter Compound of Saffron

“…Five working solutions of picrocrocin (2, 4, 6, 10, 14 mg/L) were prepared by dilution from a stock solution of 36 mg/L. Subjects determined taste detection and recognition thresholds of picrocrocin using the AFC of Limits (ASTM ; Torrico and others ) at 25 ± 2 °C. In addition, they were asked to describe the taste of picrocrocin.…”

Potential of Szechuan pepper as a saltiness enhancer

“…Moreover, the recognition threshold of NaCl (0.047-0.050 g/100 mL) was lower than those of KCl (0.0822-0.107 g/100 mL). [58] It resulted in a higher impact of NaCl at the same concentration according to the taste activity concept. [59] The data from Table 6 showed that Cl -was the limiting ion for computing a balanced chemical equation.…”