Column Judith Witte: What is tasty?

Lunchtime on the weekend. My daughter wants frikadellen: with curry sauce, mayonnaise and onions. That combo of salty and sweet, the creaminess of the sauce, and fresh crunch of the onions: it's irresistible to her. She knows it's unhealthy. "But so yummy..."
I pass. Soon I will be running the marathon in Rotterdam. This makes me éxtra conscious of what I eat these weeks. It has to be healthy. Nutritious and useful. And to be honest, I don't find frikadellen very tasty. Never liked them anyway.

What I do love is Indian food. Chicken tandoori, dosa, curries, biryani: delicious. I like to garnish many of those dishes with a big dollop of chopped coriander. My children find that disgusting. "'Like having a bite of soap." 'Tastes differ', people say, but 'people' actually mean something different. After all, the taste of coriander itself does not change between the dish and our mouth. What goes wrong is the tasting (because yes: coriander is really tasty!).

Flavour research is in full swing. Did you know that a new primary flavour was recently discovered? Fruit flies appear to have a taste receptor that allows the insect the ability to taste 'alkaline' as well. We already knew that an acidic substance activates an acidic taste receptor on the tongue. The existence of an alkaline tasting ability would be logical, but has not been demonstrated before. The researchers 'hold it possible that these taste receptors also contribute to the sense of taste in humans'. That too makes sense; the similarity between humans and fruit flies is indeed great....

I'm not going to break any records in Rotterdam, not even personal ones. But I do want to finish it again. To reach the finish line, I need fuel. Last weeks I tried out different 'sports gels' again and again, quietly hoping that product developers have not been sitting still. I still find them downright gross. Bitterly sweet, sticky in the mouth, often with a chemical aftertaste. Anything but nice. But come on: they are functional. So I bravely pinch my nose shut and empty the energy paste into my mouth. At least it does taste good. 

It is often said that new food products must be tasty, otherwise consumers will not buy them. But what is tasty? Tasting is testing, and tasting is personal. Salt is tasty, but not healthy, and sometimes functional is more important than tasty, but that only applies as long as there is no better alternative... I am stuck. As long as it doesn't happen in Rotterdam.

Judith Witte
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