Until recent developments, it was widely accepted by the scientific community that the average human tongue could only distinguish five tastes: sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness and “umami”—a Japanese term that refers to the savory taste of meat and pastas. However, new research presents data attesting the existence of a sixth taste: starchiness.

Taste occurs when certain amino acids contained in foods latch onto taste receptors on the tongue. Specifically, starchiness is caused by the amino acid glucose oligomer. Scientists originally perceived that the human tongue did not contain taste receptors capable of registering glucose oligomers and they categorized the amino acid under sweetness. This categorization was opposed by a group of scientists at Oxford University after a successful breakthrough.

The discovery was published last month in an Oxford digital magazine called Chemical Senses. The article describes an experiment wherein two groups of human subjects were given solutions containing the amino acids linked to the sweet and starch tastes. One group’s sweet taste receptors were blocked by a sweet inhibitor called lactisole. Averse to previous understanding, the group with blocked sweet receptors could still taste the solution, labeling the remaining taste as “starchy.”