Basic taste qualities (bitterness, saltiness, umami, sourness and sweetness) in dairy products and beverages interact with each other and affect the human perception of these food products. Altering the taste by reducing the sugar content of dairy products during product development will therefore have an impact on the human perception of such dairy products. Hence, it is important to reveal the mechanisms of these taste-taste interactions in order to predict the perception of such products.
In collaboration with Arla Foods, this MSc project will develop different dairy-based model food systems with different composition of the basic taste qualities that will be tested using a trained sensory panel as well as a novel split tongue gustometer stetup in order to exploit whether these taste-taste interactions are peripheral or perceptual.
The master project comprises a product development of dairy, sensory evaluation and an experimental set-up with subjects using the split-tongue method and the gustometer. The master project will be aligned to Glenn’s PhD, which is about sensory interactions of sweeteners in food and includes a split-tongue study.
The project is aligned to UN's SGD:
