One hundred years ago, Professor Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University discovered that glutamate was the key to the taste of the Japanese stock, known as dashi. He named this taste umami.
Umami is now recognized internationally as the fifth taste. Umami comes from the Japanese word "umai", which means savory or deliciousness. It is a unique taste deriving from glutamic acid or glutamates, common in meats, fish and cheese.
Umami has tremendous potential for improving health and nutrition of the population in years to come.
Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and Umami
Glutamate was first identified more than 100 years ago in Germany, but it was in Japan that its effect on the taste of food was determined and given the name "Umami". In 1908, Professor K. Ikeda of Tokyo University isolated glutamate as the essence of savouriness of traditional Japanese stock prepared from a kind of seaweed and named its unique taste Umami.
The umami taste is often described as meaty, broth-like, or savory taste, and is independent of the four traditional basic tastes, sweet, sour, salty and bitter. It has been established for more than 10 years now that umami, which is the taste imparted by monosodium glutamate (MSG), stands alongside sweet, sour, salty and bitter as one of the five recognized basic tastes.
Although the classification of umami as a basic taste is a recent development, fermented fish products such as nam pla in Thailand and nuoc mum in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries have been traditionally used to impart the taste. Free glutamate level in these fermented fish products are as high as parmesan cheese. Peoples have actually been familiar with Umami for centuries without recognizing the term as stocks or bouillon of Europe, as tomato sauce and cheese in Italy and Greece, as fish sauce of ancient Rome, called "Garum", and Southeastern Asian countries, as well as Soy sauce in Asia.
For salt intake reduction, Umami is effective
As its name suggests, monosodium glutamate (MSG) contains sodium, but sodium content of MSG is only 12 per cent, while that of table salt is 40 per cent. Its contribution of sodium intake is 1/20 to 1/30 of that of table salt. Furthermore, monosodium glutamate is used at levels far lower than salt (around one tenths). Based on these two factors, MSG contributes little to the total daily amount of sodium intake.
When the salt level in food is reduced, there is a reduction in food acceptability. By using a small amount of monosodium glutamate, even 30 per cent of sodium can be reduced, keeping a palatable and acceptable level of taste. By decreasing the amount of salt needed to make food palatable, umami could be significant in improving appetite in the unwell and elderly, and in reducing salt intake.
