Newly designed gustatory test based on the number of chewing strokes required for recognition of the taste

The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of a new gustatory test based on the progress of mastication by counting the number of chewing strokes required for recognizing tastes.

Thirty-nine subjects (20 males and 19 females, 25.3±6.4 years old) without missing teeth were selected. Four types of newly designed test materials made from 15% gelatine were prepared, containing sucrose, sodium chloride, tartaric acid, or quinine hydrochloride. Five or six concentrations, representing weak to strong tastes, were prepared for each tastant. Subjects were instructed to chew the food, and the number of chewing strokes necessary to recognize the taste was counted.

Female subjects recognized the sweet taste more accurately than male subjects (Friedman test: p<0.05). For each tastant of the test materials, the average number of chewing strokes (recognition threshold) was approximately 10. The frequency of correct responses and the average number of chewing strokes tended to be higher and lower, respectively, as the concentration of the taste in the test material increased (Kruskal-Wallis test: sweet p<0.01, salty p<0.01, sour p<0.01 and bitter p<0.01).

Using the newly designed test materials, counting the number of chewing strokes necessary for recognizing the taste would be a useful index of a new gustatory test to investigate taste sensation.