2.6. Taste Testing
The five NaCl solutions presented to participants included concentrations of 0.05, 0.09, 0.15, 0.19, and 0.25 M NaCl, which were selected to reflect the spectrum of salt taste in a real-world food environment [First, five 10 mL salty solutions made with NaCl and distilled water in different concentrations were presented to participants in 30 mL plastic portion cups, in order of increasing concentration (0.05, 0.09, 0.15, 0.19, and 0.25 M). Participants were asked to put each solution in their mouth and swish for as long as needed to thoroughly evaluate the solution and then expectorate. Next, participants were asked to rate the liking of each solution on a VAS of 0 to 100, where 0 reflected ‘not at all’ and 100 represented ‘extremely.’ Immediately after the liking task, participants were asked how intense they thought the salty solutions were on a VAS of 0 to 100, where 0 indicated ‘not at all’ and 100 signified ‘extremely.’ After rating their liking and intensity, participants were asked to rinse their mouth with distilled water after each sample until no saltiness was perceived. After 30 s, the next sample was tasted.The preferred salt concentration test followed examination of liking and intensity. This test adapted the two-series forced-choice paired-comparison tracking procedure developed by Mennella et al. (2011) [