ENHANCING EFFECTS OF NACL AND NA PHOSPHATE ON HUMAN GUSTATORY RESPONSES TO AMINO-ACIDS

The effects of salts on sweet taste of amino acids (glycine, alanine and serine) were examined by the psychophysical method. There was no difference in quality of sweetness between the amino acids alone and the amino acids in the presence of salts since low concentrations of NaCl and Na phosphate having no salty taste were used. The sweetness of the amino acids was greatly increased with an increase of NaCl concentration. The sweetness of 100 mM amino acids in the presence of 30 mM NaCl was equivalent to that of 500-600 mM amino acids containing no salt. On the other hand, Na phosphate little affected sweetness of the amino acids. Significance of the present results in food science was discussed.