Food Scent Can Boost Sense of Saltiness

Enhancing food products with certain aromas could compensate for the impact on taste from reducing their salt content, according to a new study. This could give manufacturers another tool towards healthier product formulation.

The excess consumption of salt (salt sodium chloride) has been linked to an increased risk of high blood pressure, which can lead to cardiovascular problems like strokes. The majority of salt consumed has been found not in home-cooking, but ‘hidden’ in manufactured food products by Food Retailers. So the food industry is under considerable pressure to reduce sodium chloride (salt) content of its offerings, while still delivering products that have an acceptable taste to consumers.

Researchers in foods research from INRA in Dijon, France, working in cooperation with Unilever Food and Health Research Institute, set out to investigate the interaction between odor and saltiness. Their results indicate that when a consumer expects a certain flavor, the perception of saltiness is enhanced. The change in taste perception is thought to come about through odor.

After two experiments, the research team observed that the effect of odors on enhancing saltiness was especially pronounced in simple water solutions that contained just a small amount of salt. This sounds much healthier in the long run, and most likely inexpensive to accomplish.

The researchers indicated that odor-induced taste enhancement might also be used to compensate for the taste of fat and sugar content in foods formulated along healthier lines. For instance, butter or cream odor could enhance the perception of creaminess. But they add a caveat: “Sugar and fat are known to highly influence texture and mouthfeel of food products. Therefore, all sensory aspects of food products reduced in salt, sugar and fat need to be addressed, to reformulate food products that would be acceptable to consumers.”