Browsing by Subject "astringency"

The chemesthesis perception needs to be researched so that we can better understand how it works in different individuals and affects them. Chemesthesis, smell and taste chemical senses have an important role in individual food choices and health. The primary goal was to study the individual differences in perception of chemesthesis. The data for this study was collected at the University of Turku Functional Food Forum sensory laboratory (ISO 8589). The data includes sensory study results about chemesthetic properties such as astringency, burning and cooling, which are the properties analysed in this study. Study subjects (N=196) evaluated the intensity of these three properties. Every property had five sensory samples presented in different concentrations. Based on the results, the intensity rate was classified into three groups (non-sensitive, semi-sensitive, most sensitive) with Hierarchical clustering. The differences of the formed groups were analysed with the one-way multivariate analysis of variance which gave statistically significant results (F = 10.0; p ≤ 0.001). Mean values of the cluster groups from three different chemesthetic properties were combined into chemesthesis scores. Age didn’t affect the chemesthesis score (F = 0.5; p > 0.05). Female subjects’ chemesthesis scores differ from the male subjects’ scores (F = 5.1; p ≤ 0.01). The correlation between chemesthesis and taste was tested from Puputti et al. (2018) created taste score with data from the same subjects, and chemesthesis score. Chemesthesis score and taste score had a positive correlation (r = +0.561; p ≤ 0.01). The results show that individuals differ in the perception of chemesthesis. The chemesthesis score can classify individuals to different sensitivity groups and chemesthesis appears to correlate with taste. There are many chemesthetic sensations whose properties and mechanisms are unknown. The objectives of the research were achieved. The research is a part of Professor Mari Sandell’s the Academy of Finland funded Food Taste research program and was done during the COVID-19 pandemic.