Relative Taste Intensities of Selected Sugars and Organic Acids ^a

Abstract

SUMMARY A highly trained taste panel was used to establish the concentrations of fructose, glucose, and lactose equivalent in sweetness to sucrose at threshold and suprathreshold concentrations. The same panel established the sourness of lactic, tartaric, and acetic acids equivalent to that of citric acid at threshold and suprathreshold concentrations. There was no relation between pH, total acidity, and relative sourness. Results obtained from determinations made in water solutions agreed favorably with values reported in the literature. The threshold measurements are considered to be of limited value since the relative taste intensity of these compounds is not a constant but is materially affected by the absolute concentration chosen for comparison. The presence of a slight bitterness in glucose, and a slight, unidentifiable flavor in lactose, appeared to influence the threshold determinations. When the sweetness of sucrose and fructose were compared in pear nectar, fructose was less sweet than sucrose at all concentrations (1.0–20.0% sucrose). Increasing the total acidity of the pear nectar had little or no effect on the relative sweetness of these two sugars.