Is flavour science a positive science, in the 'Wittgensteinean' sense ? 

His Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus consists of numbered propositions in seven sets.The seventh set contains only one proposition, the famous "What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence." One of the most misunderstood and misused phrases in literature and daily life.

The major theme of the Tractatus as a whole is that fact that propositions merely express facts about the world. The propositions in themselves are entirely devoid of any value. The facts are just the facts. Everything else, everything about which we care, everything that might render the world meaningful, must reside elsewhere because it can not be expressed in logical propositions. 

A properly logical language, and only this, Wittgenstein held, deals only with what is true. Aesthetic judgments about what is beautiful and ethical judgments about what is good cannot even be expressed within the logical language, since they transcend what can be pictured in thought. They aren't facts. 

The book concludes with the lone statement: "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."  This is a powerful message indeed, for it renders literally unspeakable so much of human life. 

That it can be not applied to flavour science is obvious, but nevertheless people try to summarize their sensorial experiences in words. They have a value in the sense that it can help flavorists to focus on the same topic and to have a common language between flavorists and customers. The terms can however never express the total multisensorial experience of fragrance or flavor. 

The following article is a good example of what I mean :

http://beauty.about.com/od/fragranc1/a/popular-fragrance-terms.htm 

(sorry for the advertisement film in the text of the article)