Fat, protein, and temperature each contribute to reductions in capsaicin oral burn

It is widely accepted that milk provides the greatest relief from capsaicin burn, an effect typically attributed to its fat content and temperature. Previously, Lawless et al. reported partitioning lipophilic capsaicin in fat reduces burn, whereas Green showed lower temperature reduces burn. Recent research shows that dairy and nondairy proteins also reduce capsaicin burn, suggesting that multiple factors reduce oral burn from chilies. Here, we investigated the effectiveness of palate cleansers with varied viscosities, temperatures, and sugar, fat, and protein content. Specifically, we tested ice cream, Italian ice, yogurt, lassi, cold water (4°C), and warm water (37°C). Participants rinsed with a 5 ppm capsaicin solution, followed by a palate cleanser, before rating burn intensity continuously for 2 min on a general Labeled Magnitude Scale. Inspection of the time–intensity (TI) curves revealed all palate cleansers performed better than warm water. Italian ice performed on par with cold water, which did better than yogurt. Pairwise comparisons showed that ice cream and lassi had significantly lower burn ratings at some time points relative to warm or cold water. We extracted scaffolding parameters for each TI curve, finding that ice cream and lassi had the lowest areas-under-the-curve and the greatest percent decrease from their maxima, with ice cream performing slightly better in both parameters. These data support the view that it is not just one characteristic of a product, but rather a combination of product factors that reduce oral burn, including fat content, protein content, and temperature. More research is required to determine the relative weight of these factors in combination, given the multiple mechanisms underlying burn reduction.