The intricate balance between being undesirable to becoming desirable taste properties: molecular mechanisms and modulation of astringency and bitterness.
“Modulation of food nutrients towards well-being and health protective effects is one of the key targets for food science. Even though polyphenols have been linked to health benefits, their intake is not always pleasant, mainly when eliciting strong astringency & bitterness. These taste properties are an issue both in new products with low content of sugar or salt, or in new plant-based alternatives. So, research should focus on the molecular events beyond the perception of these taste properties to find ways to modulate them effectively”
Create Relevant Content
Phenolic compounds (PC) have been referred as nutraceuticals of the century due to their health benefits, e.g. anticancer action and cardiovascular protection. PC have the ability to interact with some proteins, including biological proteins, leading to many biological effects, i.e. reduce the digestibility of food by inhibition of digestive enzymes. However, they are responsible for some non-pleasant organoleptic properties of vegetal foodstuffs, e.g. astringency and bitterness. But these sensory properties could be desired in some foodstuffs if developed at balanced levels (e.g. tea, wine, coffee). Astringency is a tactile sense defined as dryness, tightening and puckering sensations being related to the precipitation of salivary proteins (SP) by PC and bitterness is a taste detected by activation of human bitter taste receptors (TAS2Rs).
Despite the wide research on these PC sensory/nutrition properties, central questions keep arising: i) what are the main drivers for astringency sensation? ii) what PC are responsible for bitterness of vegetal foodstuffs and the influence of SP? iii) how to modulate astringency/bitterness with natural food compounds, e.g. carbohydrates? iv) how to develop a biosensor with SP to assess astringency avoiding sensory panel bias? v) what effect PC/SP interaction has in PC and other nutrients bioaccessibility?
So, our global aim is to better understand the molecular perception of astringency and bitterness senses, to be able to modulate them with food natural components (e.g. carbohydrates) and processing (e.g. extraction of most “reactive” PC). Another aim of this project is to develop an easy and reliable biosensor for astringency based on protein surface immobilization to be used in the production field, giving quick responses and avoiding the bias of a sensory panel. Although this proposal has major incidence on fundamental research, this knowledge will be ground for biosensor development whose utility is targeted at food industry.
Comments