A matter of taste: Creating health experiences patients and consumers enjoy

Summary 

• What if we could transform global health with nutritional and pharmaceutical products that inspire people to make healthier choices through great taste experiences?
• Emphasizing the appealing taste of functional foods, supplements, and medicines could be game-changing when it comes to attracting taste-focused consumers or improving patient compliance.
• Explore the complexity of the human taste experience and discover fresh inspiration to deliver health and nutrition products that make a truly tasty impact. 

What if we didn’t have to settle for health and nutrition solutions that taste merely acceptable? Or, going one step further, what if we could make health and nutrition products that deliver positively palatable, novel, and delightful taste experiences? 

When it comes to supporting or enhancing human health, foods, supplements, and medicines shouldn’t just do good. They should taste great too. That’s because advanced flavors and taste modulation technologies can transform health experiences, shaping people’s preferences and inspiring them to make healthier choices. How can we capitalize on the potential of these sensorial capabilities to elevate global health? First, let’s find out why taste matters. 

The human taste experience

Our gustatory sense typically comes down to the perception of five distinct tastes: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami—or savory.¹ As one of the five basic senses (alongside touch, sight, hearing, and smell), taste is a key element of the human experience. So much so that various aspects of eating and taste, and our multifaceted responses towards them, have generated fierce debates, expressions of personal preferences, and even philosophical attention.²  

Researchers have also found significant individual differences in food and taste preferences that reflect long-term interactions between innate biological characteristics and learning processes.³ From an evolutionary perspective, our sense of taste helped us to determine if something was safe to eat. Where a bitter taste indicated that something might be poisonous, for example, a sweet taste may instead suggest that something was rich in nutrients.⁴  

In contrast, today's modern industrialized food supply is dominated by energy-rich, nutrient-poor foods that are highly processed with lots of sugar, saturated fat, and sodium.⁵ Many people in economically developed nations even go so far as to meet the majority of their energy needs with these strongly-flavored yet nutrient-poor foods.^6,7,8,9 This inclination toward taste and convenience over nutritional value is why hidden hunger has become an increasingly urgent global public health issue that affects people at all income levels.¹⁰

Taste can even influence the treatment and management of health conditions. Patient compliance suffers due to factors like the rise of pill fatigue, especially in chronic disease management, and conditions like dysphagia or difficulty swallowing.^11,12,13 With over 60 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) being inherently bitter, it’s also no wonder that children and patients in vulnerable groups often refuse medication due to unpleasant tastes or sensations.^12,16

For better or worse, it’s evident that taste heavily influences what foods we choose to consume or therapies we adhere to. Given its biological, experiential, sociocultural, and personal significance, could taste be the key to inspiring and encouraging healthier choices?  

Here’s why health experiences should taste great too

Health and therapeutic benefits are important. But they’re just a starting point. In fact, researchers found that emphasizing the great taste of brassica vegetables—like turnips, kale, and broccoli—could be more effective than calling out their health benefits.¹⁵ And 4 in 10 consumers say taste is an important purchase driver for over-the-counter products.¹⁶ Developing tasty health experiences could therefore be game-changing for attracting greater consumer interest and improving patient compliance. After all, consumers and patients prefer products that go beyond satisfying health needs to deliver pleasant experiences.  

Now, here’s an exciting opportunity to revolutionize human health with evocative taste experiences that truly speak to consumers and patients.

What if you could craft health and nutrition products that meet your target audience’s needs and wants at different times of day, year, or even at different life or disease stages? For example, healthier enjoyment, imaginative taste adventures, and nostalgic cultural food traditions are three of 2025’s top flavor trends.¹⁷ Now, picture immunity supplements marketed in fall. These could be enhanced with the warming, nostalgic, and quintessentially autumnal taste of pumpkin spice to capture the hearts of pumpkin spice season lovers everywhere as temperatures dip.¹⁸  

Elsewhere, across the Global South, rice is a dietary staple for over 50% of the world’s population and provides around 20% of its total calorie intake.¹⁹ While rice is a good source of energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals, it often doesn’t provide enough nutritional value to help meet daily recommended micronutrient intakes. So, could taste be the key to increasing nutrition intake in developing countries where both rice consumption and micronutrient deficiencies are high?  

Rice fortification technologies like hot extrusion can significantly enhance nutritional value with added vitamins, minerals, fiber, and amino acids. It’s even possible to produce fortified rice that truly retains the natural yet distinctive rice aroma. We could enhance the taste experience of fortified rice with fragrant notes of rich, creamy yet subtly sweet coconut, or mouthwatering chicken flavor that’s big on umami. Perhaps hot and spicy rice could deliver a real kick for consumers in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa who continue to demand fiery yet complex and authentic tasting foods.²⁰ Imagine how we could potentially give nutrition intervention programs a much-needed boost with other natural, moreish flavors that support compliance by keeping people coming back for more. 

Or, to encourage better patient compliance, you could create medicines that actually taste good. Flavoring agents have become crucial in pharmaceutical formulations to tackle the problem of bitterness. After all, a great taste experience also involves the masking or blocking of undesirable qualities. These innovations not only improve the palatability of medications but also play a key role in encouraging patients to complete their prescribed treatments.

We can even help give patients, senior adults, and people with special dietary needs the freedom to enjoy their favorite foods while meeting their complex nutritional requirements. The perfect solution? Completely flavor-neutral, sprinkle format nutritional supplements. Supported by our taste modulation technologies to mask potential off-notes from functional ingredients, these unique formats can conveniently and seamlessly complement a variety of meals. The bottom line is, there’s a world of opportunity awaiting brands that want to redefine the health and nutrition space with bold and unique taste experiences.

Harnessing the science behind great flavors and taste experiences

Thanks to the link between flavors and emotions, consumers and patients want products that taste as good as they make them feel. They also want to be surprised, captivated, and delighted by unforgettable products that deliver beyond expectations. And, chances are, if you can imagine a wellness experience, there’s a flavor to support the intended health benefits and thus, increase its cue of efficacy at the same time as its enjoyment.

That’s exactly what our flavors and taste modulation capabilities are designed to do. Combining 125 years of innovation with over 4,000 flavoring raw materials across 19 application centers, we support customers with flavor and taste innovation across various health and nutrition markets. Our world-renowned Taste and Sensory Services help you create consumer- and patient-inspired products that address flavor challenges and drive positive emotions, tailored to both local and global target audiences. From overcoming bitterness in drug products to pioneering delectably good gut health solutions, we get creative with taste to elevate the sensory journey and health experience for people everywhere.