Was the food that our parents ate in their day tastier than what we eat today? Is there a difference between food 50 years ago and today?
This question is quite interesting to discuss. Citing Pop Science, Claire Maldarelli, a senior editor in the field of science, said that in some ways, taste is quite objective. There are currently five recognized flavors—sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami.
When we eat food, various receptors (otherwise known as taste buds) react to the taste and send signals to the brain to tell us what is happening. But, in another way, taste can be very subjective.
"Certain types of health conditions can impair your sense of taste, as can your mood, along with many other environmental and genetic factors. For example, some people are more sensitive to bitter tastes, making very bitter foods less palatable," writes Malderelli.
Taste is often influenced by genetics of each person. Some people who are more sensitive to bitter tastes are often called supertasters. They have a gene called TAS2R38, which increases their perception of bitterness.
Tastes also change with age. Most significantly, evidence shows that the number of senses of taste we have decreases with age, and the sense of taste that persists shrinks in size. These can all affect our ability to detect the five tastes and can change our perception of food.
"The way we view food can change even from day to day," he continued.
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A 2015 study in the journal Appetite analyzed the effect of mood on various tastes by collecting data from 550 people who attended men's hockey team matches, which included 4 wins, 3 losses and 1 draw. The analysis showed that positive emotions during the game were associated with increased sweetness perception and reduced sour intensity. On the other hand, negative emotions were associated with increased sour perception and decreased sweet sensation.
Taste is arguably the result of a very complex mix of what the tongue actually tastes, what the nose smells, textures and more.
"But one thing we do know is that the way we produce and consume food has changed a lot over the last half century, and that can definitely affect taste," Malderelli said.
An example is tomatoes. Tomatoes are a very popular food and are often considered the highest value vegetable crop in the world. The taste of tomatoes is determined by sugars and acids, which activate our taste receptors, and a set of volatile compounds, which trigger our odor receptors. The combination of the two creates a unique taste that can make pasta sauce taste so fresh.
Over the years, food scientists have recognized the importance of these volatile compounds in particular in making tomatoes taste good. Today, tomatoes are bred to travel long distances without bruising and stored in storage without going bad.
But, according to a 2017 study published in the journal Science, this genetic change has led to a significant reduction in the volatile compounds that contribute to tomato aroma. That means we get a less tasty product.
"Besides the tomatoes that have received a lot of attention, there are a number of other plants that have been bred in a similar way to accommodate the demands of modern agriculture, which means they may also lose some of the flavor they once had," he explains.
Of particular note, taste has a very strong subjective quality. The element of nostalgia when eating food cannot be ignored. The simplest example, when you try to make food creations with recipes passed down from your mother, you can't make the food taste the same as your mother made -- even though it's almost 100% the same process.
