A comparison of English and Japanese taste languages: Taste descriptive methodology, codability and the umami taste

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Everyday taste descriptions for a range of stimuli were obtained from selected groups of American and Japanese subjects, using a variety of stimuli, stimulus presentation procedures and response conditions. In English there was a tendency to use a quadrapartite classification system: ‘sweet’, ‘sour’, ‘salty’ and ‘bitter’. The Japanese had a different strategy, adding a fifth label: ‘Ajinomoto’, referring to the taste of monosodium glutamate. This label was generally replaced by umami—the scientific term—by Japanese who were workers or trained tasters involved with glutamate manufacture. Cultural differences in taste language have consequences for taste psychophysicists who impose a quadrapartite restriction on allowable taste descriptions. Stimulus presentation by filter‐paper or aqueous solution elicited the same response trends. Language codability was only an indicator of degree of taste mixedness/singularity if used statistically with samples of sufficient size; it had little value as an indicator for individual subjects.