Fat Is An Actual Taste, According To Scientists

You know that feeling of regret when you buy a late night kebab after a few drinks and discover it’s covered in fat?

That might be due to the fact that fat has a unique taste, according to leading researchers.

Scientists at Purdue University, US, have claimed that fat has a unique taste called Oleogustus – and it was discovered after groups of people were asked to sweet, sour and savoury tastes.

And as for the taste’s name, it comes from the Latin translation for oil or fatty taste, and researchers were ‘forced to make it up’, due to no such word previously existing.

Describing the taste, Professor Richard Mattes said it was ‘unpleasant’.

‘The food industry has known about this for a very long time, and they go to great efforts to keep concentrations of these fatty acids below detection thresholds, because if you can detect them you’re likely not to eat the food’, he said.

‘But in small concentrations below detection levels, the taste can be pleasant—just as we enjoy the bitterness of wine, chocolate and coffee’.