Ever heard of a professional baby food taster? Us neither. But for one woman, her highly accurate and sensitive palette has led her to this unconventional career path.
Beth Anderson,24, is one of small percentage of people who are born with twice as many taste buds as normal and her ability to determine tiny changes in flavour is the primary tool she uses every day as a professional baby food taster . Beth’s innate skill is so valued by her employers that the company she works for has insured her tongue for €1.2 million (£1 million) and she is known as a “supertaster”.
Babies are typically born with 10,000 taste buds but, in later life, this decreases to fewer than 5,000 but Beth has managed to retain over 10,000 which makes her the ideal candidate for the job.
Speaking to The Guardian, Beth reveals that she was unaware of her gift until university when a friend who was studying nutrition began to notice that she was sensitive to different flavours and used her as a human guinea pig during her dissertation on baobab fruit, a fruit native to Africa which contains vitamins A and C.
Who knew so much care and consideration went into these little jars?
So how does Beth protect her tongue? Is she only allowed eat baby food and does she have to avoid anything too spicy or hot? Beth reveals “I tend to steer clear of anything too strongly flavoured, though. Not because it would affect my palate, just because my taste buds are so sensitive. If I’m going to have a curry, then it’s got to be a korma. I never add hot condiments such as mustard or horseradish sauce to my food, because it’s actually painful to eat them. It feels as if they’re burning my tongue, something I really can’t afford to do these days.”
So what does her palette with super powers also reveal? That children who don’t like the taste of certain vegetables aren’t being fussy or difficult, they might just not like the taste! “At first my heart sank if I was confronted with a recipe containing peas – I wasn’t a fan of them – but I have discovered that if you try something enough, you can train yourself to enjoy it. This gives hope to parents of fussy children – keep serving them broccoli and eventually they’ll learn to love it. I’m living proof – peas are now on the menu at home as well as at work.”
Now kids (and adults) who shun their greens have no excuse!
