“Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down; in a most delightful way...” You might recognize these linesfrom childhood. This quote, taken from the lyrics of the famous musical Mary Poppins, is the simplest way to explain the phenomenon of taste-masking. In this example, the sugar is used to mask the bitter off-taste of a medicine, making it easier for the children to drink it.
Off-taste is a common and costly problem for the food industry. For many years, the use of salt, sugar or spices helped mask off-tastes, such as bitter or sour. The tendency to replace basic ingredients like salt or sugar, as well as the increased use of functional ingredients and nutraceuticals, has increased the need for new taste-masking strategies.