Food & Drink: Food for thought-Do we taste with our noses?

IT IS SAID that we feast with our eyes, so it follows that we taste with our noses. All our senses work together to provide the mind with an accurate description of the food we eat: vision (appearance), odour (smell), taste (flavour), physical properties (texture of food in the mouth) and sound (the crackle of breakfast cereals). First, the nose detects the volatile aromas released from foods; then, as food is placed on the tongue, combinations of the four basic tastes (sweet, sour, salty and bitter) are perceived. The two senses, odour and taste, collaborate to produce the sensation of flavour. If you have a bad cold, or you hold the end of your nose, your detection of different tastes is diminished.

Similarly, visual clues are another important factor in the appreciation of taste. For example, jelly that is flavoured orange but coloured green will confuse the mind and result in a reduced taste perception. Roy Ballam, British Nutrition Foundation