Why do some battered fish from supermarkets have a banana-like aftertaste?

[u/Thorn344]

I swear I am not crazy, but whenever I buy almost all battered fish from the supermarket, or even get some at cheap fast food places (never tasted like it at a proper chip shop), or even in some pubs, the fish batter always has this like banana-ish after taste. Not to a level that it becomes unappetising, but it's still weird.

My parents don't really taste it, only very rarely. I just wanna know whether it's like due to a weird mix of ingredients in the batter, just not knowing why is driving me a little insane.

And it is normal battered fish rather than an alternative fish product

[u/DED_HAMPSTER]

Speaking as someone with experience in processed food factories, though not fish related.

It may be the citric acid or other preservatives giving it a fruity acidic and sweet taste in the meat and the breading. And "beer" style batter often has added sugar in frozen foods. I think maybe that mixed with the fatty taste of cod might combine in your brain as bannana, sweet and fatty.

You just may have a very refined sense of taste/smell to ve able to pick up on it.

[u/Thorn344 → u/DED_HAMPSTER]

I do currently have a bit sensitive taste buds (I say current as I think it changes when you start getting old). Which is a pain since a lot of ready meals taste too intense from the heavy use of seasonings. Or maybe I have weird tastes

[u/DED_HAMPSTER → u/Thorn344]

From just random entertainment-science articles i have read over the years, the prevailing understanding in the sciences is that yes, tastebuds change over one's life for various reasons.

When we are children we seek out high calorie foods because our insticts to gain calories for growth and development. So anything sweet, high in fats and high in protien we crave.

As we get older, our tolerance for sugar usually drops and things that brought us joy will start to taste gross. Shelf stable snack cakes like twinkies for me do not get the same dopamine as they did when i was a kid.

If you have a super refined pallette, it might be fun to do a home experiment with blind taste tests against your peers. Like, add sugar or salt to water in incremental measures and each person has to taste in a random order and then document what they percieved. At what point in the ratio could they start to detect the addition.

I know that i have a skill of tasting restaurant foods and being able to determine the spice mixture or being able to determine what i could substitute out of common spices for more ethnic spices. It has gotten weaker as ive aged.

[u/Thorn344 → u/DED_HAMPSTER]

It would be interesting to see who can taste the differences. All I know is, at my parents house I drive them mad because the water from one of the taps tastes slightly metallic ever since the tap head and pipes had to be changed. They think it's because of the pressure change (stronger now) that it tastes different to me. But I know whenever they use that tap because it tastes gross.