Did you know...You can taste calcium!

A new article, published on July 6th in the journal Scientific Reports, found that humans, much like many animals, have the ability of detect the taste of Calcium. The authors found that we possess a receptor called T1R3, a protein-coupled structure found deep within the membranes of the cells responsible for taste, which allows us to specifically taste calcium. The T1R3 receptor also detects sweet and umami tastes, however in this study calcium was not perceived as being sweet or umami-like, so further research is needed to disentangle the mechanism involved in calcium detection.