How Does Smell Affect Taste?

Like most people, Chia Hinchliff believed that smell affects taste. For instance, she noticed that when someone has a cold, he or she can’t smell, and can’t taste much either. To prove her assumption, she decided to mask the smell of certain foods, and then see if people could identify the taste of those foods.

Hypothesis

I believe that smell affects the way people perceive taste. I also believe that gender won’t affect the senses of smell and taste.

Measured variables

Fruits correctly identified

Experimental groups

• Fruits with peppermint oil
• Fruits without peppermint oil

Materials

• Strawberry
• Pear
• Kiwi
• Tomato
• Banana
• Watermelon
• Orange
• Blindfold
• Peppermint essential oil
• Toothpicks

Procedures

1. Select 25 male and 25 female subjects.
2. Place pieces of fruit on toothpicks.
3. Put peppermint oil on one piece of each type of fruit to mask the fruit’s real scent.
4. Blindfold subject.
5. Ask subject to taste and identify the fruit in the group with peppermint oil added.
6. Record the result.
7. Ask subject to taste and identify the fruit in the group without peppermint oil added.
8. Record the result.

Results

The subjects correctly identified the fruits as shown in the table.

Table                           Number of Samples Correctly Identified

Conclusions

The hypothesis, that smell affects the perception of taste, was correct because the subjects were less frequently able to identify the fruit when the smell was masked with peppermint oil.

The results also show that gender doesn’t have any real effect on the sense of smell and taste.

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