Why Toothpaste Ruins the Taste of Food and Drinks Like Orange Juice

Toothpaste can ruin the taste of food and drinks like orange juice, but while some people may assume it's the minty flavor of the paste that does it, Simon Whistler explains what's really at work in an episode of Today I Found Out.

You may think the reason toothpaste makes things like orange juice taste so awful is simply due to the common mint flavor of toothpaste clashing with other flavors, but this isn't actually what's going on here. The real culprit is thought to be two compounds almost universally added to toothpastes -sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium lauryl ether sulfate, which are anionic surfactants, meaning they lower the surface tension of water.

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