Characterization of taste compounds: chemical structures and sensory properties

The sense of taste, along with the sense of smell, is one the most important senses involved in the perception of food by humans. Taste is stimulated when fundamental nutrients or harmful compounds, such as toxic molecules, activate specialised receptors located in taste buds. Humans are able to perceive and discriminate five main different taste qualities, sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami (the taste of some amino acids such as glutamate). This chapter reviews the characteristics of the main tasting molecules known to be the most important to contribute to these five basic tastes. New tastants and taste enhancers, which have been generated using classical approaches or novel technologies based on taste receptor screening, are also described.