Suggested as the “fifth taste”, umami can be naturally found in many foods high in glutamate. This savoury flavour now joins the four basic taste groups in enhancing consumers’ sensation and dining experiences of many flavours.
Umami, which translates to “pleasant savoury taste”, has its origins dated back to 1908 in Japan, and is now a flavour that is gaining popularity among the world of cooking – from food scientists, manufacturers, suppliers and producers to chefs and, of course, consumers – all across the globe.
Umami is considered the “fifth taste”, joining sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Its savoury flavour can be derived from taste receptors that respond to the glutamates present in many foods and ingredients and drive the umami flavour. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the prototypical umami stimulus, but many of the flavours can be found in broths, cooked meats, gravies, tomatoes, cheeses, fermented foods, dried seafood, meat bones, shrimp and fish paste, miso and soy bean paste, seaweed, spices, plants, mushrooms, yeast and yeast extracts, and fish and fish sauces.
Dr Kay Marshallsay, technology business development director for savoury taste at Kerry, explained: “MSG is well known for its umami properties and its distinctive taste profile. As consumers, we recognise that great taste is much more complex than a single entity, and therefore the challenge is to have solutions that bring taste authenticity – so multi-faceted in terms of sensory experience – to the dining table.”
Incorporating umami into foods and beverages is similar to creating any great dish, and the key is to utilise ingredients that “work in harmony and are in balance in terms of taste experiences,” she suggested. “We intuitively understand this when we adjust levels of umami ingredients in our food. Challenges around salt, sugar and fat reduction, meat alternatives, and vegetarian dishes require solutions that recover the lost taste. Ingredients such as yeast extract, hydrolysed vegetable protein (HVP), and many others are now being commonly used to solve these challenges.”
Continuing reading the full article on how umami enhances plant-based and elderly diets, and how this taste fits into the clean label trend in our Food & Beverage Asia Dec 2019/Jan 2020 issue here.
