Abstract
Saltiness elicited by salt is one of the basic tastes. However, components of salt on the market differ depending on manufacturing processes and its taste as well. Salt manufactured by ion-exchange membrane process is composed of more than 99% pure sodium chloride, while bay salt contains trace coexisting components. Despite reports on sensory evaluation, the differences in taste are still uncertain because of a small amount of coexisting components. We studied the taste of salt with trace coexisting components; the bittern ('nigari' in Japanese) was evaluated objectively and quantitatively using a multichannel taste sensor with lipid/polymer membranes. A taste sensor is comprised of several types of lipid/polymer membranes for transforming information of taste substances into electric signals. The model samples were composed of sodium chloride and trace coexisting components such as magnesium sulfate, magnesium chloride, calcium chloride and sodium chloride. The taste sensor clearly discriminated each sample according to the response patterns. Based on the sensor outputs, we evaluated the taste by means of the combination of principal component analysis and ionic strength. The results show the taste of salt with nigari has a correlation with ionic strength.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1040-1045 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | IEICE Transactions on Electronics |
| Volume | E83-C |
| Issue number | 7 |
| Publication status | Published - Jul 1 2000 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering