Taste and smell

Why does food taste of nothing when you have a cold?

Your tongue is covered in tiny bumps that hold taste buds.

Tasting

You taste food with your tongue. Your tongue has thousands of taste buds. They sense sweet, sour, salty and bitter tastes, and a savoury taste too.

Mango is sweet, tamarind (tetul) is sour, korola is bitter and chanachur is salty. Which do you like best?

Smelling

You smell with your nose. Tiny bits of a substance float through the air into your nose. Your nose sends a message to your brain, and you smell it.

Smell can warn us of danger: smoke from a fire, a gas leak or food that has gone bad.

Working together

Taste and smell work together to give food its flavour. When you have a cold and a blocked nose, food seems to taste of nothing. Try holding your nose while you eat an apple – what happens?

Amazing animal senses

Dogs can smell things we cannot. They help police and rescue teams. Catfish have taste buds all over their skin. Butterflies taste with their feet!

What I learnt

I know that we taste with our tongue and smell with our nose.
I know that taste and smell work together.