Food Science: fun facts and quiz

Your tongue detects five basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami, a savoury taste found in foods like cheese, tomatoes and soy sauce.

Key fact
The “tongue map”, with a zone for each taste, is a myth.

Most of what we call flavour actually comes from smell. That’s why food tastes bland when you have a blocked nose.

Key fact
Aromas reach your nose from the back of your mouth as you chew.

Chillies contain capsaicin, which triggers the same pain sensors as heat. It doesn’t actually burn you; it tricks your nerves.

Key fact
Milk calms the burn better than water.

Heat changes the proteins, starches and sugars in food. Eggs set as their proteins unfold and bond, and bread browns thanks to the Maillard reaction.

Key fact
Egg whites set at a lower temperature than yolks.

Fermentation uses microbes like yeast and bacteria to transform food. It gives us bread, yoghurt, cheese, kimchi, soy sauce and even chocolate.

Key fact
Yeast makes bread rise by releasing carbon dioxide.

Microbes spoil food. Cold slows them, salt and sugar draw water out of them, and canning seals food away after heating it.

Key fact
Honey resists spoiling because it has so little water.

Table sugar is sucrose, from sugar cane or sugar beet. Some sweeteners are hundreds of times sweeter, so tiny amounts go a long way.

Key fact
Sucralose is about 600 times sweeter than sugar.