Detectability and preference for sodium chloride and sodium carbonate

Abstract In Equi-molar concentrations, sodium carbonate is much more readily discriminated from distilled water than sodium chloride. In preference testing experiments the relative aversion for the two salts is similar to their relative discriminability when postingestion factors are eliminated. When intake is used as the preference measure the difference in postingestion effects modify this pattern. In this latter case, however, Na 2 CO 3 does show the inverted U shaped function over concentration that is commonly found with NaCl.