Taste buds – taste receptors in mammals, located on the tongue, palate, pharyngeal epithelium, upper esophagus and epiglottis. They focus on the tongue in visible protrusions – the nipples. In an adult, the number of cups is about 10,000. Some of them are destroyed after about 10 days, but new ones appear in their place. The taste buds are stimulated by chemical compounds found in the food we eat.

The sense of tasteis one of the basic human senses. Thanks to it, we can enjoy a variety of dishes.The taste budsare responsible for receiving these stimuli, i.e. taste .

There are four basic flavors: sweet, salty, bitter, and sour, as well as an additional umami-taste of glutamic acid, which has been considered thefifth tastesince 2000 . The latter is found in foods rich in protein, mainly in meat, fish, and soy sauce, tomatoes, nuts, mushrooms, algae, and broccoli.The umami flavor isalso found in highly processed products, containing monosodium glutamate, which is marked with the symbol E621 on product packaging. The greatest number of such products can be found in Asian cuisine, and it is there that such food is most popular among the local population. Often, restaurateurs or food producers try to additionally conquer and enhance this taste. Importantly, products with such a characteristic taste can be introduced for a longer time into the diets of the elderly and those witheating disordersbecause glutamic acid makes the taste more intense, stimulates salivation, and has a positive effect on the appetite. The taste cells are stimulated by substances in the mucus that cover the mucosa around thetaste buds.

The taste budsincrease their sensitivityin pregnant women, while the sensitivity to individual tastes is different in every human being. It is genetically determined and each of us experiences different tastes to a different degree.The sweetness and bitterness of tasteare the most different in perception .

However, specific chemicals are responsible for the perception of a given taste. Carbohydrates and alcohols are responsible for the sense of sweet taste. For bitter taste – alkaloids, for sour – for hydrogen ions, and for salty – potassium and sodium salts.

There is also more and more talk about the presence ofanother taste, namely“fatty taste”, which is associated with the presence of fatty acids in a given product.Obese peoplemay be the most sensitive to this taste . Then, fat substitutes in various products are not as “tasty” as products containing real fat, because they only imitate its texture and taste.