The Science of Taste

Most people learn as children that the human tongue can detect four basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. For a very long time, scientists broadly agreed with this simple list. In recent decades, however, that familiar list has been （ 1 ）. Researchers have firmly confirmed a fifth basic taste, called umami, a savory quality found in foods such as meat, cheese, mushrooms, and ripe tomatoes. Some scientists now strongly suspect that there may be still other basic tastes, such as one for fat, waiting to be identified.

Taste, moreover, is far more than simply what happens on the surface of the tongue. Much of what we loosely call flavor actually comes from our sense of smell, which is exactly why food seems so dull and lifeless when we have a heavy cold. The appearance of a dish, its texture in the mouth, and even the sounds it makes as we eat all help to shape our overall experience of it. （ 2 ）, careful studies have shown that the very same food can taste noticeably different depending on the color of the plate or the name printed on the menu.

Understanding how taste really works has clear practical value. Food companies use this knowledge to make their products more appealing and harder to resist, but exactly the same science can also be used to serve health. By carefully adjusting smell, texture, and appearance, researchers hope to create foods that seem just as satisfying while containing much less salt, sugar, or fat. （ 3 ） treating taste as a simple matter of the tongue, then, scientists are increasingly learning to see it as a rich experience shaped by the whole body and mind together.