Description
Waterless Empirical Taste Test™ (WETT®)
The Waterless Empirical Taste Test™ (WETT®) provides a practical, quantitative method for evaluating a person’s sense of taste. This portable taste test kit includes enough materials to test up to 25 individuals and is designed for straightforward administration without the need for liquid rinsing.
The WETT® taste test delivers tastants using plastic strips with proprietary monomer cellulose pads. The pads contain one of five basic taste stimuli—sucrose (sweet), citric acid (sour), sodium chloride (salty), caffeine (bitter), or monosodium glutamate (umami)—along with blank tastants used during testing.
What’s Included in the WETT® Taste Test Kit?
Each Waterless Empirical Taste Test™ kit includes materials for testing up to 25 individuals:
- 50 strips for each tastant
- Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami, and blank taste stimuli
- 25 response sheets
- Administration manual
- One pair of gloves for administration
- Hard plastic portable storage container
Because the tastants are delivered on disposable strips, no liquid rinsing is required during administration. This makes the WETT® a convenient option for structured taste testing in research, professional, and other controlled settings.
Quantitative Taste Testing
The Waterless Empirical Taste Test™ is designed to help evaluate taste function in a standardized format. The five basic taste qualities represented in the kit allow administrators to assess responses to sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami stimuli while also incorporating blank test strips.
The WETT® has been described in published research, including Doty et al. (2021), Behavior Research Methods, 53:864-873, and Chen et al. (2022), Journal of Sensory Studies, PMID: 35601744.
Why Test Taste and Smell Function?
Taste and smell contribute to quality of life, nutrition, personal safety, and the enjoyment of food and beverages. These chemical senses also help people recognize environmental warning signals such as smoke, leaking natural gas, spoiled food, and potentially hazardous fumes.
Changes in taste or smell function can affect everyday activities as well as occupations where detecting odors may be important for safety. Depending on the setting, smell and taste testing may be useful for:
- Quality of life assessment
- Personal safety
- Health monitoring
- Nutrition
- Occupational safety
- Early identification of sensory changes
Smell and taste testing is not performed as routinely as vision or hearing testing, despite the impact these senses can have on daily life and certain workplace environments. Sensonics testing products can be used to identify changes in sensory function, but they should not be used alone to diagnose a medical condition.
Applications for Taste Testing
Structured taste testing can also be useful in product and sensory research. Taste test kits may be used by food manufacturers, research organizations, restaurants, culinary professionals, and other organizations evaluating taste perception, product quality, consumer preferences, or sensory differences.
A standardized testing format provides a more controlled way to compare responses and collect consistent information across participants.
USFCR Verified and ISO Certified
Sensonics International is a
USFCR Verified Vendor
and is
ISO 13485:2016 certified.
ISO 13485:2016 establishes quality management system requirements for organizations involved in medical devices and related services. The standard addresses areas such as design and development, production, storage, distribution, installation, servicing, and related quality processes.
