Rats to the salt

US company Redpoint Bio Corporation, which focuses on the development of healthier foods and beverages and new approaches to the treatment of diabetes and obesity, has advanced its discovery program for all-natural enhancers of salty taste. The program was initiated in response to consumers increasing demand for products that are both healthful and that include all-natural ingredients. The objective of the salt enhancer program is to identify natural flavour ingredients that can provide a significant reduction in the amount of sodium in food and beverage products, yet maintain the salty taste that consumers desire.

One approach to salt reduction involves the use of savoury flavours to reduce the amount of salt in products. However, the scientific basis for savoury enhancement of salty taste is obscure and difficult to address, particularly since the molecular receptor for salt in humans in unknown, making direct measurements impossible using cell-based assay approaches.

Redpoint is using its proprietary MOG assay technology for its salt enhancer discovery program. The MOG technology was developed specifically to deal with the complex sensory and experimental issues associated with the discovery of all-natural compounds, which are often derived from plant or fermentation sources containing complex mixtures of taste ingredients. Historically, natural tastants or enhancers have been discovered by trial and error using human tasters. The MOG is an enabling technology that facilitates high throughput screens of tastant libraries and natural product extracts by rodents trained to discriminate specific taste standards. MOG-trained rodents are ‘expert’ taste testers capable of rapidly identifying taste from small samples with a high level of accuracy, providing an effective means of evaluating the taste properties of complex natural product extracts.

Redpoint originally developed its microtiter operant gustometer (MOG) technology to discover natural high-potency sweeteners and sweetener enhancers. More recently, Redpoint scientists have developed and optimised a high-throughput, salt-taste detection system, in which MOG-trained rodents discriminate salt from other essential tastes (savoury, sweet, sour and bitter). The MOG approach will be used to evaluate the salt-tasting and salt-enhancing potential of natural sources such as fermentation products and edible plant extracts, with a focus on isolating active components from ingredients already used in the food industry.

The goal of salty taste enhancement is to allow the use of reduced quantities of common salt in food and beverage products while preserving the salty taste level desirable to consumers.