Scientists make artificial sweeteners without bitter taste

Yuk! A long time ago I drank something with artificial sweeteners in it and it tasted like s**t.
Well, they`re trying to make those artificial sweeteners to taste better for a reason and it`s definitely not out of concern for our health.

GIV3727: Bitter blocking means artificial sweeteners without the aftertaste

Researchers have discovered a chemical that specifically blocks people's ability to detect the bitter aftertaste that comes with artificial sweeteners such as saccharin. The key is a molecule known only as GIV3727 that specifically targets and inhibits a handful of human bitter taste receptors, according to a report published online on May 27th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. The finding of what the researchers say is the first commercially relevant small-molecule bitter taste inhibitor also opens the door to further discovery of compounds for other taste-enhancement purposes, such as hiding the yucky taste of medicines or other commonly encountered bitter flavors.

"To our knowledge, this is the first published example of a bitter receptor inhibitor with taste activity in humans," said Jay Slack of Givaudan Flavors Corp. in Cincinnati.

"We applied high-throughput screening and medicinal chemistry approaches to develop specific inhibitors for human bitter taste receptors. While these methods are commonly used in the development of new drug candidates, ours is the first successful application of this technology for bitter taste modulation. This flavoring substance could be broadly used to improve the palatability of foods and beverages containing acesulfame K and saccharin."

The method used by Slack, along with Wolfgang Meyerhof of the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrücke and their interdisciplinary team, allowed the researchers to screen the activity of thousands of molecules against human bitter taste receptors, and specifically those receptors that respond to saccharin. Those studies led them to GIV3727, a chemical that was not previously known to have any particular taste properties. Further study led to the surprising discovery that GIV3727 works on five other human bitter receptors too.

Controlled human taste tests of artificially sweetened solutions with and without GIV3727 found that the ingredient had the desired effect. That is, almost everyone selected the beverages containing GIV3727 as being less bitter. Taste intensity ratings revealed that GIV3727 had an ability to reduce bitter tastes significantly. Importantly, those effects came without interfering with study participants' ability to taste sweetness.

The researchers said that there remains some possibility that GIV3727 might work for some people a little better than it does for others, noting that even though the chemical completely abolished bitter taste receptors in the laboratory, some people were apparently still able to detect bitterness to some degree. Those differences might be explained by known differences among people in bitter taste receptor genes, the researchers said.

www.sciencecodex.com...



[edit on 28/5/10 by sandri_90]

Hmm, this doesn't seem like a good idea. Battling and attempting to disable natural taste sensors, so they don't freak out at the chemicals they're being exposed to? Maybe the thousands of years of biological knowledge they're attempting to disable are wiser than a few 'safety studies' conducted by some corporations. Maybe it tastes bitter because it's bad for you.

It seems like food science's holy grail is the ability to feed you garbage and make you think it's manna.

Oh my god this is scary actually.

This chemical actually inhibits your taste receptor from sensing "bitter".

This is BAD BAD BAD!

We only have like 4 or 5 tastes; why would anyone want to get rid of one of them?

What if this chemical has side effects; like some times a person will lose all taste of bitter permanently??

I just think this is going to far. But whatever.

Let them eat all of it they want.

Me? I want to keep my bitter thank you.

Here is a fun article talking about the different tastes.
www.wisegeek.com...

Check this out too. It says this.

The most bitter substance known is a synthetic chemical, known as denatonium, which is used as an additive in toxic chemicals to help cue people who accidentally ingest it.

So having the ability to taste bitter is actually really good for survival. If you have a bad habit of ingesting weird chemicals that is. Haha.

Hey has anyone ever tasted rotten food?

I ask because. What if rotten food tastes bitter too.

What if it is a direct identifier of something like that left over from our cave-man times?

Anyone ever tasted rotten food that can let us know if it's bitter?

I really wanna know.

Funny how they try to re-invent something that has already been invented by nature (guess you cant patent it). Miracle Fruit changes bitter taste into sweet and it's quite remarkable.

I have tried Mberry tablets which are basically Miracle fruit in a tablet form and the effect is amazing, vinegar has a sweet, delicious taste. I had to stop myself from drinking too much so I wouldn't get sick, lemon juice had a unique taste also and grapefruit was so sweet that it was almost too sweet to eat.

Also if you want a natural sweetener you can use Stevia or Truvia which can be found in Walmart. Stevia and Miracle fruit were initially going to be used as natural sweeteners but the corn industry wouldn't have that.

[edit on 28-5-2010 by Phlegmi]

The petroleum industry wants to cut in on the profits, they've been trying for years to make a sweet tasting poison that everyone loves. Aspartame comes to mind, but it doesn't have the appeal they want.