Does Smell Affect Your Taste?
By Ella McIlhinney
Question- Does smell affect ones taste?
Hypothesis- I thought that smell would affect someones taste because when I eat something with a specific scent around me, it will taste different the next time.
Procedure-
I collected my foods which were mustard, pickle juice, peanut butter, saltines, pretzels, and graham crackers.
I had my testers take a bite of a saltine, pretzel, or graham cracker to see what it would taste like on its own.
Then, my testers took a bite of the food while occasionally smelling the other food.
Finally, I asked them to describe it the best they could.
Conclusion- This test has taught me that smell does affect your taste. This shows that my hypothesis is correct because I thought it would affect your taste buds. My testers said that the food tasted different except for a few. I think if I did it blindfolded, I could have gotten more accurate answers because they wouldn’t have known what they were about to eat. I think the answers would still be close to the same. Overall, this project was very interesting and fun to test people.
Abstract-
Does Smell Affect Your Taste?
Ella McIlhinney
This year, I chose to investigate the question “Does Smell Affect Your Taste.” I wanted to do this topic because I have seen several videos about the topic and I wanted to see if it would actually work on the people I know. My hypothesis is that smell will affect your taste buds because when I am in a room that has a very strong scent and I am eating something, sometimes it will taste different compared to another time I have eaten that food.
There are a few steps on how I did my experiment. First, I had all ten of my testers eat one of the foods first to see what it tastes like on its own. Next, I had them smell the testing smell for a couple of seconds then eat the eating food. Every couple of seconds, they would smell the food and chew some more. After they finished the saltine, pretzel, or graham cracker, I had them describe what the eating food tasted like while smelling another food.
I have collected all my data from ten people. I had the girls eat the saltine and smell mustard and this is what they said. Jersey, 13, said it lost flavor, Lauren, 12, said it didn’t taste like anything, Tallula, 11, said it tasted like cardboard and was very bland, Julia, 13, said it had no difference, Shea, 6, said it tasted like mustard, and Megan, 42, thought it tasted like nothing. The boys, Aidan, 12, said it tasted like mustard, Jimmy, 41, also said it tasted like mustard, Joseph, 61, said it tasted like nothing, and Noah, 13, thought it tasted like mustard. From eating the graham cracker and smelling peanut butter, Jersey said it tasted like peanut butter, Lauren said it was sweeter, Tallula said it was a mix between the two, Julia said it tasted more like peanut butter, Shea thought it had no difference, and Megan said it was like eating peanut butter cracker. Aidan said it was much sweeter and tasted like peanut butter, Jimmy said it tasted like peanut butter, Joseph said it had no difference, and Noah thought it tasted like nothing. When eating pretzels and smelling pickle juice Jersey said it tastes like a pickle and that was all she could smell, Lauren thought it tasted the same, Tallula said it tasted the same, Julia said the pretzel tasted sour, Shea said it tasted like a pickle, and Megan thought it tasted the same. Aidan believed it tasted the same, Jimmy thought it didn’t have a difference, Joseph said he could only smell the pickle juice, and Noah thought it tasted the same. All in all, my testings have shown that smell does in fact affect your taste.
This test has taught me that smell does affect your taste. This shows that my hypothesis is correct because I thought it would affect your taste buds. My testers said that the food tasted different except for a few. I think if I did it blindfolded, I could have gotten more accurate answers because they wouldn’t have known what they were about to eat. I think the answers would still be close to the same. Overall, this project was very interesting and fun to test people.