title: Recalled taste intensity, liking and habitual intake of commonly consumed foods.
abstract: Taste intensity and quality affect the liking of foods, and determine food choice and consumption. We aimed to 1) classify commonly consumed foods based on recalled taste intensity for bitter, sweet, salty, sour, and fatty taste, and 2) examine the associations among recalled taste intensity, liking, and habitual consumption of foods. In Stage 1, 62 Canadian adults recalled the taste intensity of 120 common foods. Their responses were used to identify sets of 20-25 foods classified as strongly bitter, sweet, salty, sour or fatty-tasting. In Stage 2, 287 U.S. adults validated these selections, and let us reduce them to sets of 11-13 foods. Ratings of recalled taste intensity were consistent across age, sex and overweight status, with the exceptions that sweet, bitter and fatty-tasting foods were rated as more intense by women than by men. The recalled intensity ratings of the most bitter, salty and fatty foods (but not sour or sweet foods) were inversely correlated with liking and intake. The negative correlation between fatty taste intensity and fatty food liking was stronger among normal weight than among overweight participants. Our results suggest that the recalled taste intensity of foods is associated with food liking and habitual consumption, but the strength of these relationships varies by taste. The food lists based on taste intensity ratings provide a resource to efficiently calculate indices of exposure to the different tastes in future studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA. Electronic address: marilyn.cornelis@northwestern.edu.
authors.forename: Marilyn C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Cornelis
authors.affiliation: Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia PA, USA.
authors.forename: Michael G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Tordoff
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Ahmed
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: El-Sohemy
authors.affiliation: Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Rob M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: van Dam
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D002755:Choice Behavior; D004435:Eating / Q000523:psychology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013649:Taste; D055697:Taste Perception; D014481:United States
keywords: Bitter; Fatty; Liking; Salty; Sour; Sweet; Taste