Givaudan, the secret flavor factory : The New Yorker
Saturday, July 14th, 2012Nice article about “flavorists” and how they are searching for “white areas” of unplumbed taste. Appears the tongue just gets the basic things (sweet, salty, bitter, sour & “umani” from <30 receptors) while smelling the volatile compounds in food (using >300 olfactory receptors) accounts for most of their taste.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/11/23/091123fa_fact_khatchadourian