Sweetness Lab

Derek Fung P5

Sep. 14, 2015

Sweetness Lab Analysis

The problem we were trying to solve was how the structure of a carbohydrate affect its taste/sweetness. When we tasted the carbohydrates, I found out that the monosaccharides, carbohydrates which have one ring, were very sweet, while the polysaccharides, which has three rings or more, were very bland and not so sweet, and the disaccharides, which have two rings, vary between being sweet and bland. Some of the carbohydrates we tasted and found sweet were Glucose, Fructose and Galactose. All three of these carbohydrates are monosaccharides, and most of them were found in plants, except Galactose, which is found in healthy living beings. The polysaccharides, which are Starch and Cellulose, is found in energy producers such as plants, and are also found in staple food items. The Disaccharides, which include Maltose, Lactose and Sucrose were different in sweetness. While Lactose and Sucrose were listed in between the bland carbohydrates and the sweet ones, Maltose was listed as very bland, blander than the polysaccharides. Another observation was that the sweet carbohydrates had a granular texture and had a white color, while the ones in between sweet and bland were powderly and also has a white color, and Maltose, the blandest of the carbohydrates we tasted, had a solid texture on it and a brown color. All this evidence shows how monosaccharides are the sweetest among all the carbohydrates and that most polysaccharides were very bland.

The structure of these carbohydrates simply amaze me, to know that it can be used differently by the plants that produce them, from the building blocks of the plant, to how it produces energy. The results others that have gotten from this experiment would be different than the ones you see here. A few reasons are that we might think that one is sweet, but the same one is bland in another person’s view, some people might have not tasted enough of the sample to make sure, or that they might have tried to be as exact as possible in the scales, instead of rounding it. People believe in what they taste through their taste buds. People could mistake some food as not sweet, or spicy, or anything. The taste buds have many enzymes that react to certain flavors. When people first drink beer, for example, they get a bad impression of it due to it giving off a bitter taste. Later on, this effect would pass away though, but this shows how the taste bud changes overtime.

Carbohydrate	Type of Carbohydrate	Degree of Sweetness	Color	Texture
Sucrose	Disaccharide	100	white	granular
Glucose	Monosaccharide	155	white	granular
Fructose	Monosaccharide	195	white	granular
Galactose	Monosaccharide	105	white	powderly
Maltose	Disaccharide	65	brown	solid
Lactose	Disaccharide	90	white	powderly
Starch	Polysaccharide	75	white	powderly
Cellulose	Polysaccharide	70	white	powderly