Today's food is too sweet, says a latest study that analysed nearly four lakh food reviews. In these reviews customers were asked to give their feedback and reviews pertaining to some popular products found in marketplace. The study was published in the journal of Physiology and Behavior.
"This is the first study of this scale to study food choice beyond the artificial constraints of the laboratory. Sweet was the most frequently mentioned taste quality and the reviewers told us that human food is over-sweetened," said study lead author Danielle Reed from Monell Chemical Senses Center in the US.
For the study, the researchers examined 393,568 unique food reviews of 67,553 products posted by 256,043 customers over a 10 year period to gain real-world insight into the food choices that people make.
Researchers based their results on various parameters. To identify words related to taste, texture, odour, spiciness, cost, health and customer service, the team of researchers used statistical modelling programme. They further computed the number of reviews that mentioned each of these categories.
The focus on product over-sweetness was striking as almost one per cent of product reviews, regardless of food type, used the phrase "too sweet".
While they were assessing reviews that referred to sweet taste, the researchers revealed that over-sweetness was mentioned 25 times more than under-sweetness.
The findings stated that 'sweet taste' was mentioned in 11 per cent of product reviews, almost three times more often than bitter.
(With inputs IANS)
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