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Fat: The SIXTH Taste
Why do we like fatty foods so much? We can blame our taste buds.
Our tongues apparently recognize and have an affinity for fat, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. They have found that variations in a gene can make people more or less sensitive to the taste of fat.
The study is the first to identify a human receptor that can taste fat and suggests that some people may be more sensitive to the presence of fat in foods. The study is available online in the Journal of Lipid Research.
Investigators found that people with a particular variant of the CD36 gene are far more sensitive to the presence of fat than others. …more
Scientists have agreed that the tongue can sense five distinct tastes but differed over whether our taste buds can detect fact. New research now finds that the tongue can recognize and has an affinity for fat and that variations in a gene can make people more or less sensitive to the taste of fat in foods.
Oh boy, if adding “umami” not long ago wasn’t enough, now we have “fat” as a non-aromatic taste. Will this effect sensory tests like the Q Grader test? Will this spawn new research by the GCQRI, SCAA, SCAE, CQI, etc?
There has already been some discussion about lipids in coffee, and how they are not true lipids since they are water soluble, but will this new discovery and its influenced research affect “legit” roast levels?
On the other hand, it could just be a trivial “huh.. interesting” facet of taste with the result of nothing changing within our industry. Interesting, nevertheless. What say you?
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Do you know anything about the latest research on this? And how much fat is in coffee anyway – thought not much…?!
with no paper filtration (as in french press, espresso, moka, etc..) there IS some LDL cholesterol present, though there is no significant amount of fat (total, saturated, unsaturated, and trans are all 0g per serving). Filtered: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/beverages/3898/2 Espresso: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/beverages/3899/2