'Too Sweet': Products available in market have more sugar, less salt

New Delhi : The commercially available food products in the market are 'too sweet' for the human consumption, said researchers who analysed food product reviews of over 400,000 Amazon customers.

A team of researchers from US-based non-profit Monell Chemical Senses Centre used Machine Learning technique to identify words related to taste, texture, odour, spiciness, cost, health, and customer service in food reviews of 67,553 products. It was posted by 256,043 Amazon customers for a decade, the Environmental News Network reported.

The findings from the research have been published in the journal Physiology and Behavior. As per the report, sweet taste was mentioned in 11 per cent of product reviews, almost three times more often than bitter.

In a surprise, saltiness was mentioned rarely on the products.

“This is the first study of this scale to study food choice beyond the artificial constraints of the laboratory,” said lead author Danielle Reed, a behavioral geneticist at Monell.

“Sweet was the most frequently mentioned taste quality and the reviewers definitively told us that human food is over-sweetened,” Reed added.

In terms of health, excess intake of sugar may lead to severe illnesses like diabetes, obesity, heart disease and some cancers as well.

India has estimated 8.7 per cent diabetic population in the age group of 20 and 70 years. Restricting intake of free sugars to six teaspoons or less per day can help to reduce incidence of non-communicable diseases, including diabetes, according to the World Health Organisation.