Materials and methods
Overall study design
The study comprised three phases: an initial taste test used to
assess subjects’ liking for different levels of sodium chloride in
tomato juice, a 16-week longitudinal study used to compare two
salt reduction strategies (abrupt and gradual), and a final taste test
used to assess any change in liking for different levels of sodium
chloride in tomato juice relative to the initial taste test. Subjects
were assigned to the abrupt and gradual salt reduction groups in
a manner that balanced the groups for perceived 6-n-propylthiour-
acil (PROP) intensity, hedonic sensitivity to salt and self-reported
motivation to reduce dietary salt intake. Only data from the taste
tests are reported here; data from the longitudinal study are
reported elsewhere (FQAP-D-14-00053).