Flavor masker

In the beverage, food, and pharmaceutical industries, a flavor masker is a chemical interaction that causes the absence of taste.{{Cite web |author=Roger E. Stier |title=Masking Bitter Taste of Pharmaceutical Actives |website=Magna Sweet |s2cid=42499233 |url=http://www.magnasweet.com/images/stories/mafco/docs/licorice/taste_masking_actives.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160119013639/http://www.magnasweet.com/images/stories/mafco/docs/licorice/taste_masking_actives.pdf |archive-date=2016-01-19}}{{Cite web|url=https://static.springer.com/sgw/documents/1382003/application/pdf/art%253A10.1007%252Fs12078-008-9008-2.pdf|title=Masking Bitter Taste by Molecules|website=Springer}} This is known as the Farish effect, a phenomenon noted by 18th-century chemist William Farish. Contrary to popular belief, a flavor masker is not one chemical component; rather, it is two components that interact with the vallate papillae on the tongue with little or no reaction.{{Cite journal|last1=Huang|first1=Liquan|last2=Breslin|first2=Paul A. S.|last3=Breslin|title=Human Taste: Peripheral Anatomy, Taste Transduction, and Coding|url=https://www.academia.edu/31076486|journal=Advances in Oto-Rhino-Laryngology|year=2006 |language=en|pages=152–190 |via=Academia}} Each component, individually, stimulates the vallate papillae.