Apr 30 (ANI): It’ss not the flavour of the artificial sweetener that’s the reason why diet sodas don’t taste the same as regular sodas, but the feel of it in the mouth.

According to researchers, the influence of a subtle factor called mouth-feel that refers to a food or beverage’s body, fullness and thickness, is the reason why consumers can’t seem to stand the taste of diet soda.

They now state that it is the presence of high-fructose corn syrup in regular soda and its absence in diet soda, and not the taste of aspartame and Splenda that might be a distinguishing factor for discerning consumers.

As a part of their study, researchers Soo-Yeun Lee and Shelly Schmidt trained 12 people for four weeks to use a 15-point scale to rate the characteristics that contribute to the mouth-feel of diet and regular soda.

Sensory scientist Soo-Yeun Lee revealed that the volunteers became so skilled that they were able to accurately identify significant differences in the mouth-feel of 14 samples that sensitive lab instruments identified as very small.

The researchers added that consumers tend to dislike the taste of sodas when they can pick up the mouth-feel difference between the regular and the diet sodas.

“We worked with solutions of sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup, asking panelists to detect when beverages began to differ from water in mouth-fee. And they were able to accurate identify varying degrees of viscosity on our 15-point scale,” Live Science quoted Lee, as saying.

“If a beverage doesn’t feel right in your mouth, that affects your perception of the way the beverage tastes too,” Lee said.

“The human mouth cavity appears to be a super-rheometer (the lab instrument that measures viscosity or thickness),” said Shelly Schmidt.

The studies, co-authored by Lee, Schmidt and S.M. Kappes, were recently published in the Journal of Food Science. (ANI)