Sensory integration in citric acid/sucrose mixtures

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Abstract
The scale values of perceived sweetness, sourness and total taste intensity of unmixed sucrose, unmixed citric acid and several citric acid/sucrose mixtures were assessed, using a functional measurement approach in combination with a two-stimulus procedure. The data showed that the scale values obtained were linear with perceived taste intensity. It was demonstrated that citric acid suppresses the sweetness of sucrose and that, inversely, sucrose suppresses the sourness of citric acid. However, this suppressive effect was not symmetrical in the range of concentrations used. While the degree of sweetness suppression depended only on the citric acid level, the degree of sourness suppression depended on the sucrose as well as on the citric acid concentration. With regard to the perceived total taste intensity of citric acid/sucrose mixtures, it was shown that the sum of sweetness and sourness approximately equals the total taste intensity. The implications of the present findings for the analytic—synthetic controversy and for taste interaction theories are discussed.