Up until now, humans have been thought to be able to distinguish between five basic food flavors - sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami, which is a component of foods which are rich in protein. But Australian scientists have claimed that they have managed to stumble upon a sixth taste sense.

Researchers from the Deakin University have stressed that they have found out that "fat" can be distinguished by humans, in addition to the five previously known tastes. Experts believe that the new discovery could help develop foods that would trick the body into thinking that it has had enough of fat.

Deakin University's Dr. Russell Keast has shared that most of the people do not need to eat a breakfast soaked in fats and grease to know that they are indeed consuming fat.

The study carried out to reach to this conclusion involved 33 people, and all of them could detect fat even when it was mixed with foods which were non-fat, suggesting that fat does actually have a distinct flavor, and humans can sense it.

Dr. Keast asserted that the study could lead to the development of better low-fat foods, which people will be less likely to abandon.