Columbia Technology Ventures

Enhancement of sweetness by eliminating acid-induced suppression

Enhancers of sweetness are attractive solutions for increasing the detection of sweetness without increasing actual sweetener levels. Current methods for enhancing sweet taste are largely approached by improving the sweet taste stimuli and response; however, this technology proposes to enhance sweetness by targeting pathways that suppress the sweet taste response. Recent studies demonstrate that stimulation of acid-sensing receptor cells drastically suppresses a co-stimulated sweetness response such that over 50% of the sweetness response is masked. This technology proposes to enhance perceived sweetness by inhibiting the activity of acid-sensing taste receptor cells. Thus, this technology proposes a method for enhancing the perceived sweetness of natural and artificial sweeteners, which allows the levels of added sweeteners to be reduced in foods and beverages.

Eliminating pathways that suppress the sweet and umami responses increases perceived sweetness while reducing the need for sweeteners

The sweet taste stimulus generates a neural response, which conveys the perception of sweetness. However, taste stimuli often occur in combination of multiple taste modalities, and recent studies demonstrate that the sour taste stimulus has a strong suppressive effect on a co-stimulated sweet or umami taste stimulus. The suppression occurs from the release of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA onto the terminals of sweet and umami neurons. This inhibitory effect masks over 50% of the sweetness perception thereby requiring high levels of sweeteners to produce products that are sufficiently sweet. This technology targets the acid-induced pathway in order to unmask the sweet taste pathway. The advantage of this technology is that it allows added sweeteners to be reduced while still achieving the desired sweetness.

The suppressive effect of the acid-induced pathway on the sweet response was tested and demonstrated in mouse models.

Lead Inventor:

Charles Zuker, Ph.D.

Applications:

  • To enhance sweetness in foods and beverages
  • To reduce the levels of caloric and non-caloric sweeteners in foods and beverages.
  • To protect the sweetness of a product when acids are added as stabilizers
  • To inhibit the acid-induced sensory response when acids are used for packaging, encapsulation, or product delivery purposes

Advantages:

  • Increases the sweetness taste response without increasing the levels of added sweeteners
  • Approaches sweetness enhancement by targeting a suppressive pathway
  • Reduces the need for added sweeteners thereby reducing the caloric content of foods and beverages
  • Allows the sour-sensing response to be controlled

Patent information:

Patent Pending

Tech Ventures Reference: IR CU13004, IR CU12250

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