Taste Masking

Patients have modest taste expectations for drug products – they need to be palatable. Palatable drug products generally have moderate attributes – not too bitter, hard, gritty, chalky or irritating.

Many active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are bitter and require some form of taste masking to yield a palatable drug product. Occasionally, the API needs to be “sequestered” from the taste receptors using encapsulation, complexation, or other technology to yield a palatable drug product. However, most APIs can be effectively masked with a properly constructed excipient system.

One of the great myths of taste masking is that taste and smell are the same. We are routinely asked the question - which flavors – orange, grape, chocolate, mint - are effective in masking a bitter taste? The answer is none. And the reason why stems from human physiology.

Tastes – sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami (savory) – are perceived through stimulation of receptor cells located in the taste buds on the epithelium of the tongue.

Odors (aromas), on the other hand, are perceived through stimulation of receptor cells in the olfactory epithelium located in the upper reaches of the nasal cavity.

Understanding these physiological differences, flavoring aromatics – orange, grape, chocolate, mint – cannot mask bitterness.  The key to masking bitterness is blending the bitterness with complementary and supporting basic tastes, aromatics and mouthfeels so that the bitterness is no longer perceived. This is where Senopsys’ FlavorOpt^SM System comes in.