Sensory reception deception from Senomyx

The first products containing ingredients that can effectively fool our taste buds into believing we are eating foods far saltier, sweeter and richer than they really are will hit supermarket shelves this year.

US-based biotechnology firm Senomyx has struck deals with Ajinomoto, Nestlé, Kraft and Coca-Cola, in a bid to develop new flavour compounds.

Building on work by scientists who have successfully cloned human taste receptors for umami, sweet and bitter tastes, Senomyx uses biological screening techniques to evaluate millions of molecules to identify which substances bind to specific taste receptors.

Any substance that binds and activates our sweet taste receptors, for example, will send a signal to the brain that we are eating something sweet.

This in turn paves the way for the development of new ingredients that can precisely replicate the signals that sugar or salt send to our brains without actually containing either of these substances.

While work on bitter blockers, high potency sweeteners and salt enhancers using this technology was still in the development stage, new flavours replicating the taste of monosodium glutamate would hit the market this year, said a spokeswoman. "One of our collaborators is preparing for initial commercialisation in 2007. A second is conducting development work in preparation for potential launches."

Senomyx had also identified taste receptors that respond to bitter ingredients, and extensively screened compounds that block these receptors, she said. "The antagonist compounds are undergoing taste tests and optimisation to increase potency in order to provide a taste effect by reducing bitterness." Products using certain artificial sweeteners were a particular target market.

However, the biggest opportunity was in natural compounds and extracts that could be developed as high potency sweeteners, she said.