Influences of strongly seasoned home meal replacements upon sense of taste

2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 15500533
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Eating habits, studies on eating habits
• Research Institution: Saitama University
• Principal Investigator: KAWASHIMA Kaoru Saitama University, Faculty of Education, Professor, 教育学部, 教授 (00114207)
• Project Period (FY): 2003 – 2005
• Keywords: home meal replacement / taste / taste preference / salt concentration / sugar concentration / MSG concentration / sensory evaluation / questionnaire

Research Abstract

Home meal replacements (or HMRs) have become very popular recently, and varieties of them are widely used as a part of everyday meal. HMRs are said to have bad nutritional balance, contain too much food additives, and also have strongly seasoned taste. The purpose of this study is to know the characteristics of the taste of HMRs, as well as people's attitude and taste to HMRs.
The contents of taste ingredients such as salt, sugar, and MSG contained in HMRs (rice dishes, main dishes, side dishes, and soups) were analyzed and compared to those of home made dishes.
HMRs showed higher concentrations of salt, MSG, and sugar than those in home made dishes. People use HMRs because they are quick and convenient, but think that home made dishes taste better and they prefer home made dishes. However with the sensory evaluations whose main purpose laid in comparison of taste of HMRs and home made dishes, they rather preferred taste of HMRs. They judged taste of home made dishes, which actually had less than half amount of salt comparing to HMRs, more salty than HMRs. HMRs contained higher amount of MSG, so MSG might mask saltiness.