About this Research Topic
The area of interest of “taste sciences” has greatly expanded in the last 20 years. The discovery of the extra-oral expression of taste receptors, of their involvement in metabolic control and in the cross-talk with the microbiota, giving pharmacological relevance to their activation, has been one of the main reasons that gave new input in the research on the molecular aspects of taste. One of the other is the development of new foods (for example lab-grown meat and plant-based food) and the issues to be faced about their sensory acceptability by consumers.
It is therefore necessary to raise the awareness that not only manipulating the taste of a food can have effects far beyond the oral cavity, but that the design of new health-promoting food products could be done using taste-active compounds as nutraceuticals.
We welcome manuscripts (original research, reviews, mini-reviews, commentaries, and opinion papers) covering, but not limited to, the following topics:
• Identification of new taste active molecules (agonists and antagonists), both from natural sources or by-synthesis.
• Study of the interaction between tastants and their receptors (e.g., X-ray, modelling studies).
• Study of genetic differences in taste receptors among individuals.
• Interactions of plant proteins with taste-active molecules.
• Enzymatic synthesis of new taste enhancers/taste-active molecules.
• Extraction of new taste-active molecules from natural resources (and chemical modifications/semi-synthesis).
• Advances in knowledge relating to taste modulators, taste enhancers, and taste blockers.
• Recent discoveries in molecules with sweet taste and their role in nutrition and food science, given their frequency of usage and relation to industrial production.
• Taste compounds in health.
It is therefore necessary to raise the awareness that not only manipulating the taste of a food can have effects far beyond the oral cavity, but that the design of new health-promoting food products could be done using taste-active compounds as nutraceuticals.
We welcome manuscripts (original research, reviews, mini-reviews, commentaries, and opinion papers) covering, but not limited to, the following topics:
• Identification of new taste active molecules (agonists and antagonists), both from natural sources or by-synthesis.
• Study of the interaction between tastants and their receptors (e.g., X-ray, modelling studies).
• Study of genetic differences in taste receptors among individuals.
• Interactions of plant proteins with taste-active molecules.
• Enzymatic synthesis of new taste enhancers/taste-active molecules.
• Extraction of new taste-active molecules from natural resources (and chemical modifications/semi-synthesis).
• Advances in knowledge relating to taste modulators, taste enhancers, and taste blockers.
• Recent discoveries in molecules with sweet taste and their role in nutrition and food science, given their frequency of usage and relation to industrial production.
• Taste compounds in health.
Keywords: taste, tastant, taste molecule, flavor, flavour, taste-active molecule, taste enhancers, flavor enhancers, taste blockers, sweet taste, umami
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
