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Chemical Senses Advance Access first published online on November 1, 2006
This version published online on April 2, 2007
Chemical Senses, doi:10.1093/chemse/bjl040
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© 2006 The Authors
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Subthreshold Olfactory Stimulation Can Enhance Sweetness

D Labbe, A Rytz, C Morgenegg, S Ali and N Martin

Nestlé Research Center, Department of Food Consumer Interaction, Lausanne, Switzerland

Correspondence to be sent to: David Labbe, Nestlé Research Center, PO Box 44, CH-1000 Lausanne 26, Switzerland. e-mail: david.labbe{at}rdls.nestle.com


  Abstract

The impact of olfactory perception on sweetness was explored in a model solution using odorants at subthreshold concentrations. First, the impact of 6 odorants, previously described in the literature as congruent with sweetness, was investigated at suprathreshold level in a sucrose solution. Ethyl butyrate and maltol were selected as they had the highest and the lowest sweetness-enhancing properties, respectively. Second, the impact on sweetness of the 2 odorants was investigated at subthreshold concentrations. A system delivering a continuous liquid flow at the same sucrose level, but with varying odorant concentrations, was used. At a subthreshold level, ethyl butyrate but not maltol significantly enhanced the sweetness of the sucrose solution. This study highlights that olfactory perception induced by odorants at a subthreshold level can significantly modulate taste perception. Finally, contrary to results observed with ethyl butyrate at suprathreshold levels, at subthreshold levels, the intensity of sweetness enhancement was not proportional to ethyl butyrate concentration.

Key words: cognitive integration, familiarity, olfaction, psychophysics, taste

The access control for this article has been corrected.

Accepted 6 October 2006


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[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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