Such as from being stored in an old Parmesan cheese container?
I’m talking about an absorption that could be tasted in the sugar if it’s stored in a plastic container that once stored the cheese.
NOTE: This is not for homework. It’s about a housemate.
Sure. A classic cooking trick is to store a scraped-out vanilla bean (which otherwise would go in the trash) in a container of sugar. The sugar takes on the flavor and scent of the bean, adding a nice note of vanilla to whatever you make with it.
Is it physically possible? Yes. More than likely, the correct term is adsorb, but lay people don’t distinguish. It almost certainly happens to dome extent. Sugar has a large surface area.
Will it be enough that your roomate can taste? I’d be pretty skeptical of that, but I may not have the most sensitive taste buds in the world.
So would you say that something about its molecular structure (or perhaps with the carbon) makes it particularly adsorbant? Is sugar something that a cook with sensitive taste would make a point of storing in “virgin” containers?
When you open a plastic container which has had its lid on for some time, you can often smell some leftover food smell or an old plasticky smell. Sugar, having no particular smell of its own, will certainly pick up those smells to a noticeable extent. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Why are you quibbling with your roommate about this?
I suspect that sucrose/fructose sugar alone cannot absorb* odors or molecules from around it except by actual physical admixture (traces of the undesired material get physically mixed in with the sugar). But sugar is unbelievably hydroscopic (that is, is absorbs water), and the water, in turn, is infamous for absorbing almost anything. Since there’s water vapor everywhere, this probably renders the distinction moot.