NEW YORK, June 5: Every good chef knows that salt makes things taste better — but until now. science hasn't shaken out the reason why. reports AP.

A new study shows that salt suppresses bitter tastes, bringing sweet and sour flavours to the fore.

That may not sound like a big revelation. But it could help food designers concoct more effective stdt substitutes for people with high blood pressure.

It was a simple experiment by Paul Breslin of the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia that cracked the salt nut. Breslin offered people tastes of sugar, the salt relative sodium acetate and urea, a bitter substance, in every possible combination.

He used sodium acetate instead of sodium chloride because its enhances flavour like table salt without delivering its powerful salty taste, which can confuse subjects.

With each flavour combination. the researches asked their subjects to rate how much sweetness, saltiness or bitterness they tested.

It turned out that all of the flavours inhibited each other, but the sodium acetate salt inhibited the bitter urea more than it did the sugar. So when all three were served together, the result was sweet compared with the urea-sugar combina-

"Everything suppresses everything else, but the sodium is special for the bitter." Breslin said. "If you add salt, you're going to knock out the bitter