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. Carbo nation perception decreased linearly as carbonation level decreased. Sweetn ess perception showed inconsistency by means of evaluation methods: Triangl e difference test led the result showing carbonation became a hindrance for sweetness perception. However, the measurement for the sweetness degree ex pressed by panellists in four categories 'not sweet', 'perhaps sweet', 'pro bably 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 concentra tion of sucrose/actual concentration of sucrose) at approximately 0.7 regar dless of various flavours. A weaker stimulus beverage, without strong flavo ur, showed higher sweetness intensity at 0.9. Some weaker stimuli beverages , which contained strong lemon flavour and soluble fibre, showed less sweet ness intensities of 0.62-0.68 than the high-stimuli products. (C) 2001 Else vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.