Taste–smell interactions are tastant and odorant dependent

Four experiments were conducted to assess the nature of taste–smell interactions. In the first experiment, the ability of strawberry odor to modify the sweetness of sucrose was investigated. This was accomplished by having subjects rate the sweetness of whipped-cream stimuli with and without strawberry odor over time. The stimuli were swallowed to augment retronasal stimulation of the olfactory system. It was found that strawberry odor tended to enhance the maximal sweetness and total rating time of the stimuli. In the second experiment, it was found that peanut butter odor did not enhance sweetness, thus demonstrating that an odor's ability to enhance sweetness is odor-dependent, In the third experiment, it was demonstrated that strawberry odor did not enhance the saltiness of sodium chloride indicating that an odor's ability to enhance taste is tastant-dependent. In the fourth experiment, it was shown that 85% of the strawberry odorant's ability to enhance sweetness was eliminated by pinching the nostrils. This suggests that the influence of the strawberry odorant on sweetness was olfactory rather than gustatory. It was concluded that an odor's influence on taste is both odorant and tastant dependent.