Sweetness intensity in low-carbonated beverages

The carbonation perception and sweetness perception were investigated under the presence of low level of carbondioxide less than 1.0 gas volume. Carbonation perception decreased linearly as carbonation level decreased. Sweetness perception showed inconsistency by means of evaluation methods: Triangle difference test led the result showing carbonation became a hindrance for sweetness perception. However, the measurement for the sweetness degree expressed by panellists in four categories 'not sweet', 'perhaps sweet', 'probably sweet' and 'definitely sweet', and the measurement for the points of subjective equality revealed that carbonation had no influence on sweetness perception. Commercially produced beverages whose irritation stimuli were stronger showed almost the same sweetness intensities (=perceived concentration of sucrose/actual concentration of sucrose) at approximately 0.7 regardless of various flavours. A weaker stimulus beverage, without strong flavour, showed higher sweetness intensity at 0.9. Some weaker stimuli beverages, which contained strong lemon flavour and soluble fibre, showed less sweetness intensities of 0.62-0.68 than the high-stimuli products. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.