Sweet and Bitter Compounds: Structure and Taste Relationship

Flavour impressions are conveyed by the senses of smell and taste. MOSKOWITZ ( 1 ) makes the following statement regarding the role played by these two senses: "Smell is the most predominant in allowing us to form an overall impression, but the sense of taste plays an important part as well". For various reasons sweet and bitter taste are important for many foodstuffs. Great interest is taken, for instance, in new sweetening agents, firstly because of the trend towards a diet containing fewer calories in many industrialized countries with their overweight populations, and secondly, because in various countries there have recently been renewed experiments and discussions, aimed at ascertaining how safe the sweetening agents saccharine and cyclamate really are. The search for new sweeteners is rendered more difficult by the fact that suitable compounds must not only be "safe", i.e. not harmful to the health, but must also satisfy various other criteria,