How can fast food often contain so much salt, without tasting salty at all?

Question

How can fast food often contain so much salt, without tasting salty at all?

In: 8149

Answer 1

To add to some of the others: saltiness levels are also an acquired taste. Different regions have grown up with different levels of exposure to salt and have become accustomed to that in their food.

The way that fast food companies formulate their products is also to blame. Take a potato chip as an example. They basically get a focus group from the region and feed them samples where the levels of salt and/or sugar are continually dialed up right to the point the focus group tells them it’s too much for their taste. Then they dial it back one notch and people love it…