Next, have another sip of orange juice. Sodium lauryl sulfate affects the function of the taste sensors on our tongue. Sodium lauryle sulfate slightly suppresses the sweet sensors and enormously enhances the bitter sensors. No wonder it tastes so bad. However, not everyone might notice the difference to the same degree.
Some people are less responsive to bitter flavours because they lack a certain gene.
These people may not notice any difference at all. Illustrations by Alec Ellis. This site is optimised for Netscape 2.01 or Internet Explorer 2.0. or higher.