Food habit and taste perception: a North and South Vietnam comparative study.

We focussed here on cultural habits and taste perception. In particular, we studied the impact of food habits on taste perception, identification, and appreciation. Previous work suggested that human populations leaving in extreme condition, poor in basic nutriments present a higher sensitivity for sweet and nutritive molecules. We are interested in evaluating whether such an influence of environment on gustatory sensitivity can be generalized to other situations. In this study we have compared sensitivity, identification and hedonic appreciation to saccharine, sodium chloride, quinine chlorhydrate and tartaric acid in a North (Hanoi) and a South (Ho Chi Minh) Vietnamese population. A survey carried out by the Centre for International Economics indicates that North Vietnamese population consumes less sugar and sweet food products than South Vietnamese population. This difference in food habit might have an impact on gustatory sensitivity and food preferences. Seventy North and seventy South Vietnamese participants were invited to taste twelve taste strips impregnated with three increasing solution of saccharine, sodium chloride, quinine chlorhydrate and tartaric acid. For each taste strips participants had to evaluate 1) whether they perceived something, and if they did, 2) to indicate the perceived intensity, 3) to give their hedonic appreciation and 4) to identify the taste sensation. Results on saccharine revealed that North Vietnamese participants tended to perceived a sensation with the lowest concentrations more often than South Vietnamese participants. Concerning the salty taste strips, North Vietnamese participants perceived the two higher concentrations as significantly less intense than South Vietnamese participants and tended to give a higher hedonic score to the intermediate one. Concerning the bitter taste strips, North Vietnamese participants gave a significantly higher hedonic score for the two lower concentrations than South Vietnamese participants and tended to prefer also the higher one, without clear trend on perceived intensity. Finally, it appeared that North Vietnamese participants tended to prefer the lower and the higher concentrated sour taste strips than South Vietnamese participants. These results confirm that participants coming from the same country but with specific food habits could differ on their taste perception. It appears also that the difference on sweet food consumption seems not correlated with the sugar perception but perhaps more with the bitter sensation rejection