关键词: 苦味化合物, 苦味分析方法, 苦味感知机制, 苦味调控

Abstract: Bitter compounds widely exist in food and have an important impact on food flavor. The main bitter compounds in food include amino acids, peptides, polyphenols, alkaloids, inorganic salts, etc. Bitterness is perceived through the binding between bitter compounds and specific sites of bitter receptors (25 hTAS2Rs), which further activate the downstream signal pathway mediated by G protein. And it converts chemical signals into electrical signals, and transmit them to the brain. Some foods with strong bitterness taste are not well accepted by consumers, so appropriately reducing the bitterness taste in foods can improve consumers' preference. At present, the methods to reduce the perception of food bitterness mainly include two categories: (1) bitterness covering methods include polymerization/complexation, flavor interaction, etc; (2) bitterness removing methods include reducing the content of bitter compounds, changing the structure of compounds, etc. In this work, bitter compounds in food, analytical methods of bitter compounds, mechanisms of bitter perception and bitter perception reduction methods were reviewed.

Key words: bitter compounds, bitterness analytical methods, bitterness perception mechanism, bitterness regulation