New Study Shows ‘FATTY’ Might Be The Sixth Taste Sensation

We’re all familiar with the five sensations of taste. You’ve got sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. It turns out, scientists have added a sixth  to the list: fatty.

A research team at Purdue have found that taste receptors also recognize fat, the Washington Post reports. Fat on the tongue acts precisely the way flavor sensations like salty and sweet do when people perceive food. The team tested a group of participants and gave them foods that strongly featured the five staple tastes, along with the addition of the taste of fat.

The participants were able to distinguish the differences between foods with a fatty taste and the traditional ones.

With more research, it’s more than likely we can develop something that stimulates the taste of fat, without actually having to eat too much of it. As the experiment concluded, the team believe that there aren’t a set number of taste sensations, rather an infinite amount. As we all know, taste is incredibly complex and amazing.