Objective: To test the hypothesis that vegetarians have a lower oral odor than that of non-vegetarians as evaluated using an organoleptic scale and the Halimeter. Methods: A total of 35 subjects were recruited with IRB approval and informed consent, including 17 vegetarians and 18 non-vegetarians. Subjects were screened for their eligibility and provided with detailed instructions for the preparation for the organoleptic and Halimeter examinations. Organoleptic evaluation using a hedonic scale ranging from one to nine, with one being the most pleasant, five being neutral, and nine being the most unpleasant. Organoleptic evaluation was performed by four calibrated judges, each of whom was separated from the subject and other judges. Oral odor from each subject was measured using the Halimeter (Interscan Corporation, Chatsworth, CA). Three Halimeter readings were taken from each subject. Results: Using the Mann-Whitney U-Test at a significance level of alpha= 0.05, there was no statistically significant difference when comparing the organoleptic results obtained from the vegetarians (6.37±0.57) to that of the non-vegetarians (6.32±0.63) (p = 0.531). The difference in the Halimeter data for the vegetarians (167.80±139.45) and non-vegetarians (153.22±150.25) were also found to be non-significant as determined using the Student-t Test (p = 0.238). Conclusion: Under conditions of the present study, there exists no correlation between oral odor and dietary preference to be a vegetarian or non-vegetarian.

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