The respective contributions of taste (saltiness and sweetness) and te
xture (the hardness dimension) to sensory-specific satiety (SSS) were
compared. Sixteen male and 16 female, young, normal-weight adults rate
d the pleasantness of taste, pleasantness of texture and desire to eat
on Visual analog scales for eight lest foods, were then given one of
the foods to eat ad libitum for lunch, and re-rated the same parameter
s for the eight foods 2 and 20 min after the end of the meal. The expe
rimental sets of eight test foods and four lunch foods were balanced f
or taste quality (salty vs. sweet) and texture quality (hard vs. soft)
. Lunch foods were the hard and soft versions of a salty food (ham and
cheese sandwich on baguette vs. white bread) or of a sweet food (appl
es vs. applesauce). Sensory-specific satiety was observed for both sal
tiness and sweetness (e.g. pleasantness of the taste of, and desire to
eat sweet test foods decreased significantly after sating a sweet lun
ch food and similarly for salty foods), and to a lesser extent for tex
ture (e.g. pleasantness of the texture of, and desire to eat hard test
foods decreased after eating a hard lunch food and similarly for one
of the soft foods). The authors conclude texture-specific satiety may
be a significant component of satiety. (C) 1998 Academic Press.