PhD project: Taste-taste interactions between sweetness and sourness: an investigation on chemical, receptor, perceptual, and cultural level in food matrices
University: Aarhus University
Department: Department of Food Science
Supervisor: Ulla Kidmose, Associate professor
Project supervisor: Line Mielby, Post doc., Derek Byrne, Professor, Chris Kjeldsen, Senior researcher, Per Bendix Jeppesen, Associate professor
Project term: 010219 – 310122
Master’s degree: MSc in Molecular Nutrition and Food Technology, Aarhus University

BACKGROUND
My PhD-project focuses on the perception of taste in mixtures of different taste compounds. We are able to perceive five basic taste qualities, sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. In mixtures containing more than one of the taste qualities, the different tastes influence each other depending on compound concentration and food matrix and interaction with taste receptors. Furthermore,  how we perceive these taste interactions are influenced by individual and cultural factors.

My focus is on the interaction between sourness and sweetness.

AIM
The primary aim of my PhD project is to study the effect of taste-taste interactions on basic taste perception with sweetness and sourness as case. Further, I want to investigate the importance of the different levels of interaction, namely at chemical, receptor, perceptual, and cultural levels.

RESEARCH OUTLINE
The PhD project will investigate taste-taste interactions in both model matrices, and real complex food matrices such as coffee. The effect of different sour taste compounds on sweetness will be investigated, as well as different strategies to investigate the mechanism of the taste-taste interactions will be employed.