Glutamic acid in foodstuffs and within the human body
Naturally occurring glutamic acid has a savoury and “rich” taste. It is often present in foods that are rich in proteins, which are therefore rich in amino acids. Ripe tomatoes, meat, Parmesan cheese and legumes contain a lot of glutamic acid, as well as popular condiments such as soy sauce, [...]
A guide to umami – taste buds, taste receptors and the taste map
It is commonly known that there are not just four, but five tastes: salty, sweet, bitter, sour and umami, also referred to as the fifth taste. Most of us learned in school that the distribution of taste buds on the tongue could be depicted as a map. Even though it [...]
Airplanes, tomato juice, and the design of umami
An interview with Professor Charles Spence, Oxford University Professor Charles Spence is the Head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University. He is a cognitive neuroscientist who brings together people with different backgrounds such as marketers, designers, chefs, sensory scientists, composers and psychologists [...]
Did you know …
The term "umami" is Japanese and can be translated approximately as “tasty”. However, ingredients that give dishes an umami taste are not just used in traditional Japanese cooking. The requirement for the savoury umami taste can be observed worldwide in different cooking traditions, whether it is Spaghetti Bolognese with Parmesan [...]
The discovery of the fifth taste
The fact that there is a further taste sensation in addition to sweet, sour, bitter and salty was discovered back in 1908 by the Japanese chemist Dr. Kikunae Ikeda. However, it was not until around 70 years later that this taste gained scientific acceptance under the term umami and became [...]
The development of umami research
Dr. Kikunae Ikeda (University of Tokyo, Japan) examined the taste-imparting constituents of “dashi”, a popular Japanese stock made from seaweed. He succeeded in extracting the glutamic acid (a type of amino acid) and in identifying the salt of glutamic acid – glutamate – as being responsible for the umami taste [...]
