Flavour/taste perception in thickened systems: the effect of guar gum above and below c

The effect of polymer concentration on flavour/taste perception in thickened systems has been investigated using solutions incorporating a fixed concentration of sucrose and flavouring and a wide range of concentrations of three different samples of guar gum, with intrinsic viscosity values of [eta] = 16.7, 8.4 and 5.04 dl/g, respectively. For all three samples the perceived intensity of both attributes (assessed by 18 panellists using magnitude estimation against a fixed control solution) was independent of polymer concentration up to c* (approximate to 2.85/[eta]), but decreased steeply at higher degrees of space occupancy by the polymer, with both sweetness and flavour intensity showing essentially the same dependence on polymer concentration. This behaviour is interpreted in terms of restricted replenishment of surface depletion with increasing coil overlap and entanglement.