How the Sweet Taste Changes When We See What We Drink

In recent years, growing attention has been paid by consumers to sugar content in foods and beverages, since a recent survey found that 13% of U.S. adults’ total caloric intake comes from sugar. Moreover, physicians and nutritionists have repeatedly stressed the importance of a balanced nutrition in decreasing illnesses’ probabilities. Although several studies have investigated the negative effects of excessive sugar consumption in diets, research has often neglected to examine if consumers are fully aware of sugar content in foods or drinks. Therefore, this study aims to explore if consumers’ sweet taste may change according to their awareness of how much sugar they assume through a drink. Moreover, the research aims to investigate if differences in sweetness perception among different drink categories do exist. METHOD – In a preliminary study, four drink types (a soft drink, an energy drink, an orange juice, and a bottle of water containing sugar) were showed to participants. Each bottle/can contained 250ml of product and a content of sugar of approximately 28g. Participants were asked to evaluate the perceived sweetness of each drink in three different situations: 1) looking at the product; 2) after tasting the product, and 3) observing the product accompanied by a small packet containing 28g of white refined sugar. RESULTS & DISCUSSION– Results show that the sweetness perception increase significantly (p<0.05) when consumers are made aware of the real content of sugar in drinks. Furthermore, perceived sweetness in the three compared situations seems to follow a different pattern among different drink categories, since only for soft and energy drinks it increases regularly. Finally, mean values of perceived sweetness are almost similar in the third situation (when sugar content is "visible"). This probably shows that consumers evaluated sugar content instead of drink.