The threshold values of taste substances are influenced by several factors. To learn about the effect of the temperature on stimulus, recognition and terminal thresholds, these threshold values were determined for sucrose, sodium chloride, caffeine, quinine hydrochloride, citric and tartaric acid at temperatures of 10, 20, 40 and 60°C in a panel of 19 tasters. The individual values were found to vary over a wide range, resulting in a relatively large standard deviation of the mean threshold values. A temperature-dependence was found for the stimulus and recognition thresholds which was different for the different taste substances. The stimulus and recognition thresholds are lowest in the temperature range of 20 to 40°C. The threshold values increase with increasing temperature, and except for citric acid, significant and highly significant differences existed particularly between 20 and 60°C, whereas statistically verifiable results could not be obtained between 10 and 20°C. There was no verifiable temperature dependence either for the terminal thresholds. The terminal thresholds were found to lie rather in a relatively narrow concentration range and to be largely independent of the temperature. The results suggest that in warm dishes and beverage more taste substances are required to produce the same taste intensity. A dependence of the individual thresholds upon age, sex and smoking habits could not be found.
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Paulus et al. (1980) studied this question.