The fifth basic taste – Umami

Food is something that we indulge all our five senses in. We smell the waft of deliciousness in the kitchen, we observe the careful plating of the dish, hear the sizzle of the meat, clunking of the cutlery, and then when we finally skewer our forks into it, we feel the texture.

Ultimately, it is the taste that brings all these senses together to act as a deciding factor of whether a dish is a winner or not.

In school, we were taught that there are four types of tastes the human tongue can detect – sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. However, there is a fifth taste, Umami, that was coined by a Japanese academic in the early 20th century.

The Umami taste was discovered in 1908 by Professor Kikunae Ikeda who was with a vision to improve the nutritional status of Japanese people. He identified glutamate found in konbu(kelp) as the source of the fifth taste, and he named the taste Umami.

Umami describes the savoury, meaty or brothy taste that balances all other tastes and brings up the natural flavours of foods. It is an independent basic taste that cannot be replicated by combining any of the other four tastes.

For human beings, being able to distinguish the five basic tastes is an indispensable skill for survival, because it allows us to avoid risky foods and obtain nutrients safely.

By detecting the sour taste of organic acids in unripe fruit or rotting food, or the bitterness of alkaloids, for example, our tongue enables us to avoid danger. In contrast, when we detect the sweetness of sugars that serve as our energy source, or the saltiness of minerals necessary to maintain the balance of body fluids, we actively consume them.

When it comes to Umami, the taste is indicative of protein intake, which is crucial for metabolism.

Glutamate is an amino acid that can be found abundantly in many protein-rich foods and vegetables such as cheese, scallop, chicken, tomato, asparagus and corn etc. Besides, over 50% of total free amino acids in mother’s breast milk are glutamate that provides Umami taste.

Glutamate is also produced naturally in the body. It is an important building block of protein with a key role in the metabolism of major nutrients, reconstruction of body protein and metabolism of energy.

In fact, our bodies naturally contain 10 grams of free glutamate in muscles, brain, kidneys, liver and other organs and tissues.

Umami seasoning or AJI-NO-MOTO® Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is made from natural raw materials such as tapioca or sugar cane through a common biological process called fermentation, a similar process that is used for making fermented rice, soy sauce, vinegar and yogurt.

AJI-NO-MOTO® pure Umami Seasoning consists of three components, namely 78% of glutamate (same kind of amino acid that can be found abundantly in protein-rich foods and vegetables), 12% of sodium (same component that exists in table salt, but 3 times lower) and 10% of bound water (H₂O).

All the three components are safe to be consumed, as our bodies digest them the same way as we do when eating tomatoes, cheese, asparagus, chicken etc.

Reducing sodium in our daily diet

According to WHO, a long period of high sodium intake may increase the risk of getting high blood pressure and other non-communicable diseases.

One of the main sources of sodium comes from table salt. Human sensory tests showed that food palatability increased by adding table salt into food.

However, by using a small amount of Umami Seasoning, the sodium intake can be reduced up to 30% while maintaining the palatability.

As an example, when 3.3g of salt was replaced with 3.8g of AJI-NO-MOTO® Umami Seasoning in a litre of Chicken Soup B, we are able to reduce about 30 percent of sodium in Soup B compared with Soup A.

The 30 percent of sodium reduction could be achieved because the sodium content in AJI-NO-MOTO® Umami Seasoning (12 percent) is three times lower compared to table salt (40 percent).

 

To illustrate the safety of MSG further, U.S Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) declared the additional of MSG to foods to be “generally recognised as safe” (GRAS).

Apart from that, Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) had also declared in 1987 that the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) level for MSG is “not specified”.

The glutamate that is naturally present in food and the glutamate derived from MSG are identical, and are digested and absorbed in the same way in the intestine.

In fact, researches have shown that glutamate from food or from MSG is important for the normal functioning of the digestive system.

Therefore, to ensure you eat well and live well, incorporate a healthy dose of AJI-NO-MOTO® Umami Seasoning into your daily meals.

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This article is brought to you by AJI-NO-MOTO.

Source : Star2.com