The Background - Artificial Human Sensors: Science and Applications - page 9

but in general and according to the reference maintain their taste sensation ability.
The other reflection made is that we probably should emphesize and rely more on
the olfactory system when the food is still outside the body and can be rejected
without any risk of poisoning the mouth. Of course the smell and taste sensations
perceive in parallel when the food is placed in the mouth.
On the other hand, a part of the population is considered to be super-sensitive
to certain chemical stimuli. This group of outstanding people is called supertasters,
Bartoshuk (1996), and the supertasting group have significantly more taste buds in
their mouth, approximately four times more than “normal” is not unusual. The
fungiform papillae of supertasters are smaller and more densely packed. The pain
fibres associated with the taste buds make the supertasters extremely responsive
to the burning sensation of spices in the mouth. Women are more likely than men
to be oversensitive to taste. About 25 % of the human population is extremely re-
sponsive to a variety of especially bitter and sweet compounds in food, and is re-
ferred to as the supertasters. On the other hand, another group of 25 % of the popu-
lation, referred to as non-tasters, is relatively unresponsive to chemical compounds
in the food. The genetic variation in appreciating the difference of taste occurs
across the world and can be found to enjoy the flavour of spices, Bartoshuk (1993).
Nevertheless, regarding the generic flavour, approximately half of the pop-
ulation is, based on the above reasoning, considered to have responsive taste
behaviours that vary within a range, from what we may consider as normal taste
behaviour. The conclusion drawn from this reasoning is that we may consider a
variation of taste in half of the population that is either sensitive or non-sensitive,
to be able to enjoy the different flavours of a nice and seasoning flavour in the food.
This fact may of course be a challenge for the chef in a restaurant, assuming that
half the guests dining in the restaurant have various taste perception. On the other
hand, could this fact result in the aspect that half the number of guests, i.e., the
non-tasters and the supertasters, will not appreciate a tasty dinner menu? Follow-
ing this reasoning, of course then the other half the number of guests will enjoy
a tasty dinner menu. Indeed the effect of concentration on taste plays an impor-
tant role. Also the taste interaction in foods is significant and has been reported by
Mojet (2004) for young and elderly people.
This variety in human perceptual sensing is a complex pattern that is hard to
measure, and also to describe in words, i.e., to communicate a sensation and feel-
ing for the involved individual. Everyone, who asked a child how the food tasted,
will probably get a single word response back - OK or AWFUL - explaining either
of the two alteration levels “good-bad”. There seems to be an easy explanation
with a short answer, that communicates either of the two extremes, instead of ex-
plaining about nuances concerning the received sensations. The existing problem
is exhibiting the lack of interactive capability when not being able to find words in
describing flavours and impressions and further how to communicate the sensa-
tions to other peoples. This lack of descriptive properties, especially in the young
generation, is a serious problem and will if continued impoverish the descriptive
language of the flavour of sensation.