Abstract:Oils and fats are important nutrients. With the development of economy in China, people pay more attention to the flavor perception of oils and fats. The main factors affecting the formation of flavor variances of oils and fats include the differences in raw materials, and the oxidative degradation, thermal decomposition and Mallard reaction of oils and fats during manufacture processing. During oral processing, the taste, smell, trigeminal sensory neurons, and their interactions form the flavor recognition of oils and fats in the specific area of brain. It has been reported that receptors such as fatty acid transposase (CD36) and G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) are participants in the perception of oils and fats. As a result, it has been suggested that the perception of oils and fats could be the sixth taste. Complex multi-sensory interactions depend on all sensory responses of human. In the future, the perception and the involvement of oils and fats in multisensory interactions should be further investigated.
