VERIFIED CONTENTAuthor: Aleksandra Żyłowska-Mharrab, dietitian, food technologist, educator
Umami is the fifth flavor extracted by scientists. It is the taste of broth, soy sauce, but also green tea and… tomatoes. Umami means "delicious" and one of his roles is to harmonize the other flavors of the dishes. When was the fifth taste discovered? What substances are responsible for its perception? What foods taste umami? Is man made to taste umami?
The flavor umamiis one of the five basic flavors alongside sweet, bitter, s alty and sour. What about spicy? It's a taste too. Interestingly, the spicy taste is not really a taste in the classic sense. Not taste receptors are used to sense the sharpness of food, but pain receptors.
Asian cuisine has known and used umami-rich foods for at least a thousand years. In Japan, the fifth taste has been spoken of for about a hundred years, but in Western science such a concept did not exist. It has long been believed that umami is not a separate flavor but a mixture of taste sensations.
Substances with the umami flavor were only called flavor enhancers and it was argued that they had no flavor by themselves. However, in 2000, umami receptors were discovered in the mouth that do not respond to other flavors. Umami meets all the criteria for a basic flavor and is currently considered the fifth basic flavor.
Umami - what's the flavor?
As far as everyone knows what sweetness or bitterness tastes, you can wonder what umami tastes like. The word umami comes from Japanese and literally means "the essence of deliciousness".
The taste of umami is described as a meat or broth flavor. The easiest way to realize what the taste is is to try long-cooked broth, parmesan or one of the typical Japanese products. Japanese cuisine is rich in products rich in umami flavor. Soy sauce, miso paste, dashi broth, matcha and sencha tea are just some of them.
While in the Western world the taste of umami appears in scientific considerations only since the 1980s, the Japanese have been aware of its existence for a long time and designed many processes that allowed the production of umami-rich food.
Most fresh produce only has a mild umami flavor. Whereasfermentation, cooking, food ripening causes an increase in the concentration of umami substances in it as a result of the breakdown of proteins and cells.
What substances do umami taste like?
Chemical compounds in food are responsible for the perception of individual flavors. The sweet taste is caused by e.g. sucrose, glucose or erythritol, while the s alty taste is caused by sodium or potassium chloride.
It was not known for a long time exactly what chemical compounds were responsible for the perception of umami taste.
A breakthrough in this aspect was the work of the Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda in 1908, who identified glutamate (glutamic acid ion, one of the protein amino acids) in "kombu" seaweed - the basic component of "dashi" broth. It is currently recognized that the same umami taste sensations are produced by 3 different substances:
- glutamate, or glutamic acid anion (but not glutamic acid, which is acidic),
- 5'-guanylan,
- 5'-inosinate.
5'-inosinate or 5'-inosinic acid anion was isolated in 1913 from bonito fish, and 5'-guanylate or 5'-guanylic acid anion - in 1957 from "shiitake" mushrooms.
Each of the chemical compounds responsible for the umami taste does not cause a strong taste sensation separately. Only the combination of, for example, glutamate with 5'-inosinate or glutamate with 5'-guanylate gives a strong taste sensation. When consumed together, the two umami-flavored compounds taste 5-6 times stronger than either when used in the same concentration.
This synergism was first described in a scientific source only in 1960, but it has always been used intuitively in many regions of the world.
The flagship example of the umami-flavored dish, the Japanese "dashi" broth, is cooked with "kombu" seaweed containing glutamate and dried bonito fish, which is the source of 5'-inosinate.
The broth, to be the tastiest, should be cooked in meat (5'-inosinate) with vegetables such as carrots, celery and onions (glutamate). Italian bolognese sauce? It's a pure combination of umami - glutamate in tomatoes and Parmesan and 5'-inosinate in meat.
Umami-flavored substances in foods
Glutamate is widespread in proteins because it is one of the 20 amino acids that make up these macrocompounds. However, the glutamate component of proteins does not have the umami flavor. Food gives it free glutamate, which can be found in the raw product or obtained from proteins in food processing. Free glutamate is a stable compound and does not break down at high temperatures such as cooking.
The average diet provides around 20g of glutamate daily. Glutamate is found in plant and animal foods, but there is more of it in plants. In fresh food, it can be found mainly in "kombu" and "nori" seaweed and in tomatoes.
Fermented and matured foods, however, contain much higher concentrations of glutamate. Glutamate in the small intestine is used up by epithelial cells as an energy source or converted to other amino acids and glutathione. It is not absorbed into the blood from the small intestine, and does not go to the brain and other tissues.
Free 5'-inosinate is not found in fresh produce. It is formed as a result of the breakdown of ATP - a high-energy compound that supplies energy to cells. This process occurs only in the bodies of dead animals and fish, and 5'-inosinate reaches its highest concentration 10 hours after the cessation of vital processes. This means that at this time, the meat of animals and fish tastes best umami. 5'-inosinate is present only in animal products and in the highest amounts in dried fish.
5'-guanylate is also produced exclusively in dead cells by RNA breakdown. In fresh plants, 5'-guanylate is present in very small amounts, but in dried plants its concentration is several dozen times higher. The products that owe the taste of umami to 5'-guanylate are primarily mushrooms.
The umami-flavored substances not only occur naturally in food. They are produced industrially, used as a spice, mainly in Chinese and Japanese cuisines, and as a food additive to enhance the flavor of products.
Which food tastes umami?
The taste of umami is typical of meat, fish and seafood. Mushrooms, soybeans and some vegetables have it too. In processed products, the concentration of umami flavor increases many times over. Mushroom drying, soy and tea fermentation, cheese and meat ripening, cooking. These processes increase the concentration of the substances with the umami flavor.
Umami-flavored foods
| Glutamate sources [mg / 100 g] | |
| Seaweed "kombu" | 1200-3400 |
| Seaweed "nori" | 1380 |
| Tomatoes | 150-250 |
| Garlic | 110 |
| Potatoes | 30-100 |
| Chinese cabbage | 40-90 |
| Carrot | 40-80 |
| Onion | 20-50 |
| Scallops | 140 |
| Shrimp | 120 |
| Sea urchins | 100 |
| Mussels | 90 |
| Crabs | 20-80 |
| Egg yolks | 50 |
| Anchovies | 630-1440 |
| Cheese | 300-1680 |
| Parmesan | 1300 |
| Emmentaler | 308 |
| Fish sauce | 620-1380 |
| Soy sauce | 410-1260 |
| Green tea | 220-670 |
| Long-ripening raw ham | 340 |
| Sources of 5'-inosinate [mg / 100 g] | |
| Dried Bonito Fish | 470-800 |
| Dried Sardines | 350-800 |
| Fresh Sardines | 420 |
| Dorada | 180-400 |
| Tuna | 250-360 |
| Chicken | 230 |
| Pork | 230 |
| Beef | 80 |
| Sources of 5'-guanylate [mg / 100 g] | |
| Dried shiitake mushrooms | 150 |
| Boiled "enoki" mushrooms | 50 |
| Dried morels | 40 |
| Dried porcini mushrooms | 10 |
Do people like umami?
Each of the basic flavors has a distinctive physiological role. The sweet taste is a signal about the source of energy, because the most readily available energy for humans comes from carbohydrates (sugars), which are sweet. Bitter taste signals poison. Many substances that are harmful to humans are bitter.
Sour taste warns of spoiled food. We even say that the soup, sauce, or salad has turned sour. The s alty taste indicates the presence of minerals that are essential for life. And umami? Umami tells the brain about the presence of protein in food.
Unlike the other four basic flavors, umami is not an intense flavor. Even a high concentration of umami substances does not give a strong flavor to food. Umami harmonizes other tastes in food and increases the palatability of food.
No doubt man is programmed to enjoy umami. What it comes from? Human milk contains 19 mg of free glutamate per 100 g. This is really a lot compared to e.g. cow's milk, which contains only 1 mg of glutamate.
Human milk has a sweet-umami taste, thanks to which a man is familiar with these flavors from birth, these are naturally acceptable and sought after for him. Moreover, in the amniotic fluid the concentration of free glutamate is similar to that in milk, so we are prepared to know the taste already in the fetal life.umami.
Scientific research has shown that babies like umami. They reacted much more positively to mixtures with increased glutamate content - a happy expression on the face, an expression of relaxation and an opening of the mouth to eat.
The search for the taste of umami has an evolutionary background. Just like with a sweet taste. Both of these flavors signal the highest nutritional value of food and are encouraging. From the beginning of human existence, in order to survive, man had to rely on intuition. That's why we intuitively like sweet things that provide energy and umami things that provide proteins.
The role of umami flavor for humans
Substances that impart flavor to food umami perform several important functions in the human body. They are heavily involved in digestive processes.
The umami substances affect the pancreas, secretion of gastric juices, hydrochloric acid and insulin. Thanks to this, they improve digestion and prevent discomfort after a meal.
Umami flavored compounds support gastric emptying and intestinal peristalsis. It's interesting that foods rich in protein, which are slowly digested due to their complex structure, also contain digestive aids.
The taste of umami increases salivation. This effect is even stronger than that of sour-tasting products. The substances umami can help to heal problems with dry mouth and disturbed taste.
Umami flavored compounds increase the appetite and improve the palatability of foods. This has its advantages and disadvantages. It is certainly helpful in the case of low appetite and lack of desire to eat. On the other hand, it contributes to food overconsumption.
The presence of umami increases the objective feeling of s altiness and therefore allows you to eat less s alt. This is good for your he alth, especially as most people eat more s alt than recommended by he alth and nutrition organizations.
