Does Smell Affect Taste ?
Taste itself is focused on distinguishing chemicals that have a sweet, salty, sour, or bitter taste. Tastants, are detected by taste buds, special structures embedded within small protuberances on the tongue called papillae. Other taste buds are found in the back of the mouth and on the palate. The tongue is capable of having 10,00 taste buds; each taste bud consists of 50 to 100 specialized sensory cells, stimulated by tastants such as: sugars, salts, and acids.
However, since most of what people perceive as "taste" actually results from their sense of smell, interactions between the senses of taste and smell enhance the perceptions of the foods we eat. When eating or drinking the aroma released from the product provides an anticipation of the flavor about to be tasted. Giving the person the perception that the aroma they are smelling is a flavor they are tasting.
In order to begin the experiment , numerous materials were gathered such as : three to four volunteers , a testing area , small bowls for each sample , knife , cutting board , pretzels , strawberries, potato chips, salty crackers , plastic spoons , paper cups , pitcher of water , blindfold , nose plugs , notepads , and writing utensils .It is optional to prepare some samples the day before and have the food refrigerated overnight . Some samples needed to be tasted before tested on the volunteers to know if it is too unappealing or strong to use in a blind test. Volunteers were reassured that they may have to taste some strong flavors but would be given food they normally eat .After all the materials were gathered , volunteers were recruited for the taste test. Before the taste test had begun , volunteers were asked if they have any food allergies , for that reason some food samples would not be tested on them . Subsequently , samples were prepared and cut to make sure the texture of the original food is not too recognizable. Before the volunteers began the taste test , all samples were at room temperature since temperature can affect flavors. The taste test was explained to the volunteers that they will be trying a group of food samples with nose plugs on and the same set of samples with the nose plugs off. Thereafter , volunteers were blindfolded during the test so that they would not be influenced by the samples appearances. The taste test was done with one volunteer in the room at a time so that other volunteers would not hear any responses before it was their turn to try the food samples. For each sample, the volunteer was asked to describe the type of flavor that they detected. Their responses were recorded on a notepad .Next, they were asked to identify the food and their response was recorded as correct or incorrect . It was necessary that the volunteers had a sip of water between each sample so that they cleanse their taste buds before trying the next sample. After , when each volunteer finished each set of samples with the nose plugs on and without, they were able to remove the blindfold and see what they have been tasting .
In the process of developing data with the experiment we will determine, the sense of smell affects what we taste. We conclude, if an individual's smell an aroma different than the given food the interaction will alter the taste.
While conducting the experiment it was clear that smell did not really affect taste . Out of the six test subjects , half observed that no matter if the aroma of the food changed the flavor did not . For example, test subject 1 was given a pretzel and under every test tasted a salty flavor. As the same for our fourth test subject but in this case was given chips under every test and tasted a salty flavor. Although, there were many variables that contributed and perhaps altered the experiment our results concluded to prove our hypothesis wrong; smell does not affect taste.
Taste itself is focused on distinguishing chemicals that have a sweet, salty, sour, or bitter taste. Tastants, are detected by taste buds, special structures embedded within small protuberances on the tongue called papillae. Other taste buds are found in the back of the mouth and on the palate. The tongue is capable of having 10,00 taste buds; each taste bud consists of 50 to 100 specialized sensory cells, stimulated by tastants such as: sugars, salts, and acids.
However, since most of what people perceive as "taste" actually results from their sense of smell, interactions between the senses of taste and smell enhance the perceptions of the foods we eat. When eating or drinking the aroma released from the product provides an anticipation of the flavor about to be tasted. Giving the person the perception that the aroma they are smelling is a flavor they are tasting.
In order to begin the experiment , numerous materials were gathered such as : three to four volunteers , a testing area , small bowls for each sample , knife , cutting board , pretzels , strawberries, potato chips, salty crackers , plastic spoons , paper cups , pitcher of water , blindfold , nose plugs , notepads , and writing utensils .It is optional to prepare some samples the day before and have the food refrigerated overnight . Some samples needed to be tasted before tested on the volunteers to know if it is too unappealing or strong to use in a blind test. Volunteers were reassured that they may have to taste some strong flavors but would be given food they normally eat .After all the materials were gathered , volunteers were recruited for the taste test. Before the taste test had begun , volunteers were asked if they have any food allergies , for that reason some food samples would not be tested on them . Subsequently , samples were prepared and cut to make sure the texture of the original food is not too recognizable. Before the volunteers began the taste test , all samples were at room temperature since temperature can affect flavors. The taste test was explained to the volunteers that they will be trying a group of food samples with nose plugs on and the same set of samples with the nose plugs off. Thereafter , volunteers were blindfolded during the test so that they would not be influenced by the samples appearances. The taste test was done with one volunteer in the room at a time so that other volunteers would not hear any responses before it was their turn to try the food samples. For each sample, the volunteer was asked to describe the type of flavor that they detected. Their responses were recorded on a notepad .Next, they were asked to identify the food and their response was recorded as correct or incorrect . It was necessary that the volunteers had a sip of water between each sample so that they cleanse their taste buds before trying the next sample. After , when each volunteer finished each set of samples with the nose plugs on and without, they were able to remove the blindfold and see what they have been tasting .
In the process of developing data with the experiment we will determine, the sense of smell affects what we taste. We conclude, if an individual's smell an aroma different than the given food the interaction will alter the taste.
While conducting the experiment it was clear that smell did not really affect taste . Out of the six test subjects , half observed that no matter if the aroma of the food changed the flavor did not . For example, test subject 1 was given a pretzel and under every test tasted a salty flavor. As the same for our fourth test subject but in this case was given chips under every test and tasted a salty flavor. Although, there were many variables that contributed and perhaps altered the experiment our results concluded to prove our hypothesis wrong; smell does not affect taste.