Development of a Regional Taste Test that uses Edible Circles for Stimulus Delivery.

Introduction: Measurements of chemosensory function within specific regions of the tongue can yield important information about the sensitivity of lingual areas to chemosensory stimuli, and may identify possible nerve damage. A novel regional chemosensory test that uses thin edible circles was developed for human testing.

Methods: Edible circles placed at six different regions of the tongue were used to examine regional sensitivity to quinine for bitter taste, NaCl for salt taste, sucralose for sweet taste, and capsaicin for pungency.

A preference test for sweet taste that uses edible strips.

A novel delivery method is described for the rapid determination of taste preferences for sweet taste in humans. This forced-choice paired comparison approach incorporates the non-caloric sweetener sucralose into a set of one-inch square edible strips for the rapid determination of sweet taste preferences. When compared to aqueous sucrose solutions, significantly lower amounts of sucralose were required to identify the preference for sweet taste.

The examination of fatty acid taste with edible strips.

The objective of this study was to determine whether humans could detect long-chain fatty acids when these lipid molecules are delivered to the oral cavity by edible taste strips. For suprathreshold studies, up to 1.7 μmol of stearic acid or linoleic acid was incorporated into 0.

A test for measuring gustatory function.

Objectives/hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to determine the usefulness of edible taste strips for measuring human gustatory function.

Study Design: The physical properties of edible taste strips were examined to determine their potential for delivering threshold and suprathreshold amounts of taste stimuli to the oral cavity. Taste strips were then assayed by fluorescence to analyze the uniformity and distribution of bitter tastant in the strips.