Salt’s sensory aspects to drive successful low-sodium food: Scientist

By Stephen Daniells

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Taste

Understanding the sensorial aspects of salt with sensory science will help food manufacturers achieve success with reduced sodium foods, says a scientist from the Monell Chemical Senses Center.

Speaking with FoodNavigator-USA at the recent IFT Annual Meeting and Food Expo, Monell’s Dr Leslie Stein explained that salt doesn’t just impart a salty taste to food it also enhances mouthful and makes food taste 'rounder', and decreases bitter off-tastes.

“We need to understand that, in looking for salt enhancers or salt replacers, we need to find something that is going to perform all the functions of salt,”​ said Dr Stein.

“First of all, we need to look for something that imparts a salty taste, and we’ve made some progress in that over the past couple of years.”

Dr Stein added that discovery of the epithelial sodium channel or ENaC is responsible for part of the sodium tasting but there is another component that is “totally unknown at this point”.

“We need to have a good understanding of all the physiological mechanisms in order to help developers come up with enhancers and formulations that are going to assist them in making their reduced sodium foods highly acceptable to the consumer.”

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1 comment

SALT AND SUBCONSCIOUS SEDUCTION

Posted by Linda Szymanski,

There is more to salt than meets the eye. It is an instinct that we cannot and should not deny. "Salt is to the body, what air is to the sky, what rain is to the oceans, what love is to the heart." Sodium is necessary for life, but too much of anything is a bad idea- no doubt. What we are losing here is the message of NATURAL- and what is natural is best for us by design. Natural SEA SALTS have over 84 vital, important minerals that work in synergy WITH the sodium in sea salt to help our body function properly and in balance- to keep our heart function healthy, to help maintain proper fluid levels in cells, for example. Sea salt's minerals are in the exact same proportion as those found in amniotic fluid and in our blood. What could be more natural than that? Salt- common table salt found in EVERYTHING these days is an adulterated dead food- chemically stripped of its minerals, bleached and declumped... its a mess and no wonder we are all sick and fat! Natural sea salt connects to our senses and our subconscious needs because it is vital to our health, important to the vast,complicated and delicate balance that our body must maintain to remain healthy. It should not be substituted or deleted from our food, but rather moderated.

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