Pungency: The Stimuli and Their Evaluation

The quality that distinguishes an appetising meal, which one wants to eat, from a collection of cooked components that satisfy merely one's nutritional requirements, is flavor. Aroma, and the traditionally accepted four tastes, sweet, sour, salt, and bitter, are part of most foods and they are further developed or altered during cooking. Even so, most cooked foods are still considered insipid, and require food additives, such as spices, herbs and potentiators, to boost the flavour. The important contributions of spices and herbs to sensory qualities, other than aroma, are the new dimensions, pungency and astrigency. Apart from imparting a specific altered aroma, they increase the pre- and post-ingestional cues which are important in increasing awareness and appreciation of the food, and thereby lead to increased ingestion ( 1 ). Thus, the notion of food flavour - which is commonly understood as aroma and taste - should be expanded to cover the contribution