Expert: Walter Hintz - 7/1/2008

Question
QUESTION: I understand no human taste receptor work exactly the same,does all the normal human taste receptor work differently among different people? when we taste the same flavour?

Animals have different taste receptor from us, since we are all human, does it mean our taste receptor produce the same taste sensation? Do we have the same kind of taste receptor in our tongue?

Some people might argue that human have different taste different food....but what if we like the same food? do we have the same tastebud? do we taste the same?

If two person like the same flavour....like sweet, do they share the same taste?

Most people like the taste of burger, fries and sweet stuffs, fastfood....does that mean human have the same preference?

and if human have the same preference over certain flavour, do we taste the same thing?

Beside the level of intensity...Does my "sweet" generally the "sweet"taste by everyone?

ANSWER: First of all Rambo you must distinguish between taste and flavor.  We taste sweet.sour,salty.and bitter but flavor is a combination of these tastes and smell. All taste receptors are the same but not all flavors  Without smell ther ewould be no flavor and there are perhaps thousands of flavors.
We do not know whether a flavor is exactly the same for everyone. Some tastes involve heredity. There is a chemical called PTC that tastes bitter that some peole cannot taste due to there heredity. People who are PTC positive like sauerkraut.
We can only tell whether a dog or cat likes a flavor
Liking  certain foods is also learned behavior in people.  We can learn to like a certain flavor
 In summary tastes are the same for everybody but flavors are not

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: What if two people like the same flavour? like eating the same thing?

Is there a possible they taste the same flavour?

Answer
We cannot really tell what other people taste anymore then we can tell what color they see.  AS long as they call it the same thing that is what matters.  Take the flavor of orange for example.  You and I  can eat an orange blindfolded and call it orange but I can only assume it tastes the same to you.