Effect of temperature on sensing intensity of basic tastes: Sweet, salty and sour

Twenty semi-trained subjects determined the effect of temperature on basic tastes sweet, salty and sour. The sensory evaluations were performed on each basic taste and on various combinations of the three tastes at serving temperatures 3, 23 and 60°C. A single intensity level was used for all sensory evaluations and 3 replications of each panel were performed. Results from the panels provided some evidence of temperature affect, both when evaluated singularly and in combination.;The perceived intensity of some sweet and sour samples was affected by a change in temperature. Sensing intensity of the salty samples was not significantly affected by the temperature treatments. During the combination taste panels some statistically relevant data was collected. The sweet/salty panel found the sweet component of the combination was affected by some of the serving temperatures while the salty was not. Temperature had an effect on the perceived intensity of the sweet component though not across all serving temperatures, but not the sour when combined. For the sour/salty combination, the sour portion was not significantly affected by temperature while salty was in some temperature interactions. When all three solutions were combined, it was the sour portion but not the sweet or salty that was affected by some temperatures. It is interesting though; the statistically significant component of a combination was not necessarily the stimuli perceived as the most intense by subjects. Regardless of the combination, sucrose solutions were always perceived as the most intense and sodium chloride solutions as the least.