DID YOU KNOW? Around five per cent of people are anosmic, with no sense of smell
More than just a sense of gastronomic tongues employ tiny structures called enjoyment, taste has played an taste buds, which are packed into tiny important role in evolution. For example, protrusions on the tongue called papillae, sweetness acts as an indicator of sugar to act as flavour detectives for incoming for energy, while the savoury taste of food. While the teeth and saliva break umami signals proteins and essential food down, the released chemicals bind amino acids. Taste can also act as a with hair-like structures called microvilli, warning sign for sour foods that are of which there are up to 150 per taste potentially spoiled and pose a health risk. bud. The microvilli then generate a signal To detect the basic flavours of salty, that travels through the nervous system sweet, sour, bitter and umami, our to the brain for interpretation.
Tastes buds are regenerated every ten days, meaning damaged or scalded cells are quickly renewed