Measuring Bitterness

Plant breeders and food companies spend a lot of time trying to reduce bitterness in foods. They work with many plants, like the Brassica family, to select strains that produce low levels of bitterness. In some cases, measurements of these chemicals are used to predict how bitter a vegetable might taste.

Just like the hedonic scales used to measure saltiness, bitterness can be measured by asking tasters to record their experiences. Some ingredients, like beer, have their own bitterness scales; with beer, the amount of the bitter-tasting compound is measured and expressed in terms of a bittering unit scale (International Bittering Units, or IBU). Keep in mind, beer is a complex liquid made up of many other ingredients, such as malt and even acids from fermentation, all of which affect the perception of taste. So even if a beer has a high IBU, it might not taste very bitter depending on what else is present in the drink (see Bitterness Boosters).