Sweet, Sour, Salty and...Fat? Scientists Add a New Basic Taste

Sweet, Sour, Salty and...Fat? Scientists Add a New Basic Taste

4) The Habit Burger Grill
Flickr/Sean Carter
By Millie Dent

The thousands of taste buds on a human tongue each contain as many as 100 taste receptors. The interaction between those receptors and the chemicals in our food determine the taste of that hamburger or salad you’re having for lunch.

Our sense of taste has long been broken into four basic categories — sour, sweet, salty and bitter. A fifth basic taste was added more recently: umami, which means “delicious” in Japanese but refers to a meaty or savory flavor sensation. Now researchers claim there’s a sixth basic taste.

Scientists at Purdue University have published a new study in the journal Chemical Sense that they say provides evidence that chemicals called nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA) — in other words, fat — causes a taste sensation that is different from the other five tastes. The researchers have proposed that the new taste be referred to as “oleogustus.” “Oleo” is the root word for oily or fatty in Latin and “gustus” means taste.

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The researchers emphasize that they are talking about a taste, not just the creamy mouth feel you get from eating a rich piece of meat or a dish loaded in butter.

The fat that delivers that creamy, smooth feeling is a triglyceride, made up of three different fatty acids, they explain. Oleogustus — a gag-inducing taste on its own, but much more appetizing in combination with other flavors — comes from only one of those fatty acids that breaks off from the larger molecule in the food or as you’re chewing.

This finding has the potential to generate big changes in the food industry. Understanding the taste component of fat can do more than add to our knowledge of how our brain and digestive system interact. It may also help the food industry create more appealing, and potentially healthier, products.

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Jonathan Bachman
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The Treasury Department has taken down from its website a 2012 analysis that found that business owners and shareholders — not workers — bear most of the burden of corporate taxes. The findings of the report run counter to the argument Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has been making in selling the benefits of a reduction in the corporate tax rate. The Trump administration’s tax reform framework calls for dropping the corporate rate from 35 percent to 20 percent.

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