The investigation of gender-related sensitivity differences in food perception

This study investigated differences in food perception sensitivity between genders in a group of 274 subjects (187 females, 87 males). Sensitivity to taste, odor, texture, astringency and oral irritation were assessed using tests developed during the HealthSense project. The impact of gender on the different sensitivity types was determined using a Student t-test. A significant gender effect was observed on the following sensitivity types: bitter identification ability (P = 0.04), bitter, sour and sweet intensity assessment (P = 0.001, P = 0.01 and P = 0.03, respectively), odor identification ability (P < 0.001), chewing ability (P = 0.02) and oral stereognosis (P = 0.02). Females obtained higher scores than males for all sensitivity types except for the chewing ability (P < 0.05 for both the ability to chew 10 and 20 strokes). No gender effect was observed for the ability to perceive astringency and oral irritation.