Reliability of the AccuSens Taste Kit(c) in patients with eating disorders

Zinc deficiency is a putative risk factor for anorexia nervosa (AN). Detecting zinc deficiency may therefore be important in treatment. However, serum zinc is not a good measure of total body zinc. An alternative test for zinc deficiency is taste testing because zinc deficiency is known to impair taste (dysgeusia). To determine whether taste testing could be used in this way, we measured the reliability of the only commercially available taste test in 16 patients with eating disorders. The results were analyzed graphically and with the kappa statistic (K). The taste test was found to be unreliable and should not be used to determine zinc status.