Blue cheese is not made for everyone’s palate. Few people find that strong taste of a moldy cheese delicious, and this may be due to genetic alteration.
If gorgonzola seems to us to have a soapy taste, a recent study claims that it is due to four key genes that affect the taste of blue cheeses. One of these genes, STY9, is located very close to the coriander gene on chromosome 11, which has been found to be responsible for one in five people experiencing detergent-like aromas when eating this herb. The others include PDE4B, AVL9, and HTR1B.
Why does blue cheese taste like soap?
We may never have recognized it, but there are those who experience a soapy taste when eating this type of cheese. The study investigators conducted an investigation with 219 people aged 18 to 77 years. They found that two-thirds said that at least one form of gorgonzola tasted like soap to them.
This proportion of people flavored with soap is quite high and somewhat surprising. Participants were asked to taste and describe six different types of cheese, which is made from full-fat cow’s milk. The researchers also analyzed the DNA of those involved in the study in an attempt to discover which genes were common in those who disliked cheese and whether these were to blame for the taste.
Their work suggests potential candidate genes associated with soapy taste perception, providing a starting point to better understand individual differences in blue cheese perception. First, it was found that the perception of “soapy” taste in Gorgonzola cheese was associated with some genetic variations (as previously observed in other foods, such as coriander).
In fact, this work suggested four possible candidate genes (SYT9, PDE4B, AVL9 and HTR1B), involved in olfactory or gustatory processes, associated with the perception of soapy taste. The already known locus on chromosome 11 for soapy perception in coriander was also partially confirmed.
The researchers found that 144 of the 219 people who participated in the study (65.8 percent) noted a soapy taste in at least one type of blue cheese. A total of 25.1% had the sensation in a single piece of gorgonzola, 21.9% in two of the samples, 8.2% in three, 3.2% in four, 2.7% in five and 4.6% in the six cheeses.
Also cheddar cheese
In the future, knowledge of genetic variants related to food preferences could help develop new strategies for promoting consumer health and preventing food-related diseases.
Another avenue for future research would be to focus the research on a group of people that included a large number of relatives. In this way, the heritability of the soapy taste detection capacity in gorgonzola cheese could be estimated. In addition, the research could be extended to other blue cheeses (such as blue cheeses and stiltons) and types of cheese described above with a soapy flavor (such as cheddar cheese).
So, although it is good to eat cheese regularly, perhaps our preferences are marked by genetics.
