Heat as a Factor in the Perception of Taste, Smell, and Oral Sensation

Because all biological systems are to some extent sensitive to temperature, heat can be expected to affect the perception of taste. Although thermal influences on taste perception have been confirmed in numerous studies, much remains to be learned about the range of temperature-taste interactions that occur, their relevance to food preferences and nutrition, and the mechanisms that underlie them. As this review of the available data will illustrate, most of what has been learned pertains to simple chemosensory ”model” stimuli, rather than to foods, and to the effects of stimulus temperature alone rather than to the effects of both environmental and stimulus temperature. The extent to which existing data are relevant to real-world perceptions of food in a hot environment is therefore difficult to assess.