Review of Some Nutritional Aspects of the Sense of Taste

The present world food crisis and the fact that it is rapidly intensifying, dictates that man must learn more about the sensory processes involved in the food preferences of livestock species. Obviously, as the human population proliferates at ever more alarming rates, the point quickly approaches when domestic animals will be almost completely dependent upon agricultural and industrial wastes and range land forages for their nutritional sustenance. We may expect that the sensory characteristics of many of the materials eventually to be used in livestock feeding will be appreciably different from those of the feedstuffs presently in use. Under such circumstances, the sensory component of the food acceptance process becomes increasingly more important. Taste is one of the major items in the sensory component of the palatability complex. The sense of taste in higher animals functions in several processes, among which are: control of ingestive behavior, onset of specific appetites, and reinforcement in learning situations. The particulars of this chemical sense, thus, have meaning in the area of nutrition.