Sweetness Lab Analysis & Conclusion

How does the structure of a carbohydrate affect its sweetness?

CER: The fewer saccharides bonded together in a carbohydrate, the sweeter it is. When the sweetness numbers for the monosaccharides were averaged out, it gave a whopping 125 on our arbitrary sweetness scale. When disaccharide sweetness was averaged, it was only 35. And the average of the polysaccharides was 0. Polysaccharides had the most chained monosaccharide molecules and lowest sweetness. Monosaccharides were not chained at all and were the most sweet. This shows that as the amount of saccharide molecules in a chain decreased, the sweetness increased.

2. The larger carbohydrates such as starch can be broken up to produce a large amount of energy. This makes them good for storage. However, smaller monosaccharides and disaccharides are much more portable and can be moved around easier.

3. No. The rating varied from tester to tester. (1)This may be because the testers have a background of eating sweeter foods or less sweet foods. If they ate sweeter foods in general, then they may not think that a sample is very sweet and rate it lower. (2)Another reason is that the testers may take different amounts. The amount of carbohydrates that was ingested was not measured which means that if one tester took a large amount of sugar, they might find it sweeter and rate it high. (3)Also, results may vary because of genetics. Some people have a large number of papillae in their mouth which would give them high sensitivity to sweetness. Others may have genes which could reduce their sensation of sweet.

4. Human taste is perceived by taste buds on the tongue, soft palate, and throat. These taste buds come in small groups called papillae which look like bumps. When taste buds sense certain chemicals, they send information to the gustatory cortex where the data is interpreted as taste. This mechanism would allow taste rating to vary because the amount of papillae in a person's mouth can be different in each individual. Also, the way a person's brain interprets the taste can vary because of their genetics.