Taste of sweetness

Sweet, sour, bitter and astringent are the taste attributes of plant products. Sweetness is a property of organic acids. The primary functions of sugar in food products are to provide sweetness and energy.

Sugar has a uniquely clean sweetness that is entirely free from off-taste or aftertaste. Ripeness and maturity are the key factors that influence the taste of a fruit. Fruit ripening is a complex process influenced by several factors. The changes in composition of sugars and organic acids and volatile compounds during ripening process play a key role in flavor development and can affect the chemical and sensory characteristics (e.g., pH, total acidity, microbial stability, sweetness) of fruit.

Tasting something sweet leads to the activation of pleasure-generating brain circuitry. Subjective factors such as appearance and colour can also affect the sensation of taste. In order for a substance to taste sweet, it must be water-soluble and its concentration must exceed the taste threshold. In the context of food, sweeteners are often present in concentrations well above the threshold value.

Sweetness in many fruit and vegetables is a desirable attribute that is often governed, in part, by sugar concentration. Soluble sugars, mostly comprised of glucose, fructose and sucrose, may be determined using refractometry or colorimetry. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is the mostly used technique for analysis of individual compounds.
Taste of sweetness

Perception of Quality: Flavor

Perception of Quality: Flavor
The perception
Flavor like appearance and texture, is a function of chemical composition. Sweet, sour, bitter and astringent are the taste attributes of plant products. Sweetness is a property of organic acids. Glucose, fructose and sucrose predominate on fruits, with a wide variation. Citric acid is the primary acid presenting citrus fruits, while malic and tartaric acids predominate in apples and grapes, respectively. The perception of sweetness or sourness however, is primarily related to the ratio of sugar to acid present, particularly in sweet fruits and their products.

Sugar and acid ratio
Ripening of fruits usually involved the increase of sugars and the decrease of acids. In other crops such as sweet corn, sugars are converted into starch, which is undesirable. Sweetness is not desirable in all fruits and vegetables, however. The total sugar and acid content contributes to the flavor of tomatoes, and the presence of sugars in potatoes leads to objectionable browning in fried products such as chips and French fries. Other chemical compounds in citrus fruits are bitter, while tannins impart astringency.

Flavor Chemistry
Flavor is a combination of taste and aroma. Flavor impart compounds such as nootkatone in grapefruit and benzaldehyde in cherries are complemented by numerous other chemicals to give the distinctive aroma that we associate with a particular fruit and is so difficult to reproduce synthetically. Vegetables tend to have more delicate aromas, some of which are attributed to specific compounds, such as phthalides in celery. And others are metabolites of lipoxygenase. A conversion of compound present in the fresh flavor, e.g., the formation of alkyloxazoles to give the characteristic aroma of French fries potatoes.
Perception of Quality: Flavor