Can potassium sorbate (E202) be tasted and smelled by everyone or just a few people? Potassium sorbate (in Europe: E202, or 'Kaliumsorbat' in German) spoils a lot of the packaged food for me – I clearly smell and taste it. I can also clearly smell it e.g. in a medicinal cream I bought at the pharmacy. The smell/taste is very specific, a kind of organic 'sweetish-sour', remotely reminding me of wax when it is stronger, and I don't really like it. The taste also doesn't disappear after cooking as I just experienced with a pack of fresh potato dumpling dough from the supermarket (Germany) – after kneading the dough I could still smell the additive in my hand palms for a few hours. 

All the online info sources suggest that potassium sorbate wouldn't impart its own taste to the food, but the opposite is the case in my experience. Now I wonder if it's possible that not everyone can smell/taste it, e.g., for genetic reasons? Otherwise the Internet should be full of comments to this effect.
Exercise.com and Moonsharvest.com say potassium sorbate can have a sweet odor.

According to Wikipedia, some yeasts can change potassium sorbate into pentadiene, which has a typical odor of kerosene or petroleum.