Enhancing salty taste through odour–taste–taste interactions: Influence of odour intensity and salty tastants’ nature

Decreasing the sodium content in food products without changing consumer acceptability has become an important challenge for the food industry, and several strategies are currently under investigation to reach this goal. This study investigated the effectiveness of saltiness enhancement by an odour to maintain the perception of saltiness in reduced salt content solutions. In the first experiment, we tested the hypothesis that odour intensity drives the level of saltiness enhancement. The results showed that odour can increase the salty intensity by 25%, while no clear influence of odour intensity either in tasteless solutions or in low-salt content solutions. In a second experiment, we examined whether odour could enhance saltiness in salty solutions containing potassium chloride alone or mixed with sodium chloride and in salty-sour solutions. The results showed that a higher Odour-Induced Saltiness Enhancement occurred when the salty taste relied on potassium chloride as compared to sodium chloride. However, the highest enhancement was observed in the ternary odour–sour-salty solution. These findings suggest that cross-modal odour(s)–taste(s) interactions may be an efficient strategy, in combination with the use of salt replacers, to compensate for sodium reduction in complex food systems.

► Interactions between salty, sour and bitter tastes and a salty congruent odour are investigated.
► Odour enhances saltiness of potassium salt more than sodium salt.
► Odour-Induced Saltiness Enhancement (OISE) is the most efficient in salty-sour solutions.
► OISE can compensate for a reduction in sodium content of more than 25%.
► These results are especially relevant while using OISE as a sensory compensation strategy in low-salt food.