The truth about taste.

Taste is described as the most sensuous and indulgent of senses. How can food be developed to cater for this sense, especially adding the sweet flavour without the calories? First, a group of people take a test to discover if they have what it takes to be a professional tester. They take a taste then a scent test. Professor Jackie Blisset from Birmingham University then talks about her studies of children's tasting habits. Children are programmed to like sweet, avoiding bitter; a number of children go through a series of tests. Professor Linda Bartoshuk from Gainsborough, US, has been studying hundreds of tongues; she photographs and counts all the papilla. People with many papilla are super tasters. Molly Birnbaum who was training to be a chef had a serious accident; her head trauma resulted in her losing her sense of smell which is intrinsically related to the sense of taste. Bartoshuk explains how the sense of flavour is processed in the brain. Birnbaum sought help from Bartoshuk (her sense of smell came back of its own volition). An award winning chef, Homaro Cantu, based in Chicago, works with 'miracle berry' which turns the flavour of sour to sweet. He describes his work as the 'real Willy Wonka'. Professor Harry Klee in Florida has been studying tomatoes; his premise is that tomatoes are being bred for shelf-life rather than flavour. They re-discovered 200 varieties, finding that there was a signficant variation in the 'volatiles'. There were two outcomes to his research; first he cross bred the heritage varieties of tomato with the hardier modern ones to create the perfect tomato. Then working with Bartoshuk, he is using the volatiles to trick the brain to sense sweet. Visiting a zoo, Dr Michael Powell, animal dietician explains how the animals are given exactly what they need without the opportunity to overeat. Why therefore do humans over-eat? The answers are complex; it is because we are a social animal.