Evaluation of the taste and smell of bottled nutritive drinks

• Published in: International journal of pharmaceutics Vol. 305; no. 1; pp. 13 - 21
• Main Authors: Kataoka, Masumi, Yoshida, Koichi, Miyanaga, Yohko, Tsuji, Eriko, Tokuyama, Emi, Uchida, Takahiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 23.11.2005; Elsevier
• Subjects: Beverages - classification; Biological and medical sciences; Biosensing Techniques; Bitterness; Food Preferences - psychology; General pharmacology; Humans; Japan; Medical sciences; Medicinal plant; Nose sensor; Nutritive drinks; Pharmaceutical technology. Pharmaceutical industry; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Principal Component Analysis; Reproducibility of Results; Smell; Sourness; Taste; Taste sensor; Japan; Taste sensor; Bitterness; Nose sensor; Sourness; Nutritive drinks; Medicinal plant; Evaluation; Pharmaceutical technology; Pharmacognosy; Nose; Plant origin; Taste
• ISSN: 0378-5173; 1873-3476
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2005.08.019

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the palatability of 15 bottled nutritive drinks, all commercially available in the Japanese market, using data from artificial taste and odor sensors. In gustatory sensation tests, well-trained healthy volunteers were asked to score the drinks in terms of palatability and of the four basic tastes. The results suggest that overall palatability is positively correlated with sourness intensity and fruitiness ( R = 0.82 and 0.86, respectively) and negatively correlated with bitterness intensity and the tasting of medicinal plants ( R = −0.85 and −0.80, respectively). The sourness and bitterness intensity could be predicted by taste sensor and fruitiness could be predicted by odor sensor, respectively. By performing principal component analysis of the taste sensor data, the 15 drinks could be classified into four groups. The group classified as being predominantly sour had the highest palatability score, 3.8. By principal component analysis of odor sensor data, the drinks could also be classified into four groups and this time the group with a fruity flavor (smell) showed the highest palatability score, 3.4. In the combined analysis of both taste and odor data, products containing medicinal plants showed the lowest palatability. Finally, the combined usage of the taste and odor sensors gave rise to a three-group classification. Thus, not only the taste sensor but also the odor sensor may be useful in evaluating the palatability of bottled nutritive drinks.