Human beings use taste buds to evaluate the different tastes to decide what to consume. The decision is based on what is deemed nutritious or tasteful. Taste also helps human beings to avoid ingesting toxic materials. The most common tastes are sour, bitter, sweet, and salty. Umami taste was discovered by Kikunae Ikeda in 1908. However, it took more than a hundred years for this taste to be officially recognized in 2002. Ikeda collaborated with Saburosuke Suzuki, and together they developed a new seasoning referred to as monosodium glutamate (MSG). The two inventors went ahead to set up the mass production of MSG. Ikeda's discoveries can be compared to those of Julius Maggi, who also sought to improve the peoples' nutrition. In recent years, umami is used in both gastronomy and scientific research.
Umami Taste
Human beings use their sense of taste to decide what to drink or what to eat. This ability also aids in promoting the ingestion of nutritious substances while preventing the consumption of possibly toxic ones. The sense of taste is cultured and helps individuals in setting priorities and preferences between foods. Taste preferences often vary with bodily needs. Aversions for certain foods are also dependent on the sense of taste. The central nervous system acts as the mediator for these phenomena. The most common tastes include bitter, sweet, salty, and sour ( Ninomiya, 2015) . However, an additional taste was discovered in 1908 by a Japanese scientist. This new taste is referred to as umami. While recognition of umami was delayed for more than one hundred years, its importance as a taste cannot be overstated. This paper is aimed at exploring the science of umami taste.
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Human beings have different senses of taste. These senses are mediated by taste receptors ( Ninomiya, 2015 ) . Taste receptor cells distinguish different oral concentrations from several molecules and promulgate the sense of taste to brain centers. The microscopic taste buds are usually located on the epithelium of the tongue, which is scientifically called papillae. The taste sensation is associated with the corresponding excitation of taste receptors. Several receptors play a crucial role in the development of taste. Currently, there are five types of tastes that are recognized by humans. These include bitter, sour, salty, sweet, and umami.
Umami is a recently discovered taste of the five. Umami is imparted by several substances. These substances include a high level of amino acid glutamate and 5'-ribonucleotides like inosinate and guanylate (Ninomiya, 2015) . Following the discovery of this taste in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda, the global scientific recognition of umami as an addition to the four basic tastes took more than one hundred years (Kurihara, 2019 ; Ninomiya, 2015) . The quest to research on glutamate started while Ikeda was at Wilhelm Ostwald studying physical chemistry. He discovered that asparagus, cheese, meat, and tomato had a particularly subtle and peculiar taste that he had only felt while in Leipzig. After leaving Germany for Japan, he discovered that the same unique taste he had experienced while in Germany was present in the traditional Japanese soup stock called dashi. Dashi was prepared from dried seaweed known as konbu (Mouritsen et al. , 2018) . On discovering the similarities, Ikeda began to study the chemical composition of konbu with the goal of identifying the chemical component responsible for this taste. Ultimately, the scholar identified glutamic acid . He represented his research findings in the United States (U.S) at the International Congress of Applied Chemistry in 1912. The other scholars who furthered Ikeda’s discovery include Shintaro Kodama and Akira Kuninaka.
On discovering umami, Ikeda collaborated with Saburosuke Suzuki in developing a new seasoning referred to as monosodium glutamate (MSG). This seasoning was developed in 1909 and was aimed at adding an instant umami taste to foods ( Halpern , 2002) . The MSG was used in various home-cooked dishes in Japan. Due to the success of this seasoning, Ikeda went ahead to initiate mass production of MSG using hydrolysate derived from wheat protein. He also patented this production process in France, United Kingdom (U.K), U.S, and Japan. In making these steps, Ikeda was driven by a passion for improving the Japanese population’s nutritional status. Ikeda’s discoveries can be compared to those of Julius Maggi. Similar to Ikeda, Maggi sought to improve his targets’ nutrition ( Ghirri & Bignetti , 2012). Both Ikeda and Maggi made use of hydrolysate proteins in the production of new products. The inventions made by the two scholars were a reflection of differences in food cultures of soup stock in Europe and Japan.
The introduction and acceptance of umami taste as an essential concept in sensory science and the use of the term 'umami' as a scientific term took time. Likewise, these events resulted in mixed reactions. There were extensive discussions on various issues related to the development and recognition of umami as one of the five basic tastes. These discussions ended following the discovery of umami taste receptors in human beings in 2002 ( Ninomiya, 2015; Zhao et al., 2003). Umami is deemed capable of harmonizing with the flavor of different foods. Other benefits include maintenance of palatability of dishes and promotion of salivation. Besides promoting healthy eating, umami can aid in adapting to the taste preferences of different gastronomic cultures.
References
Ghirri, A., & Bignetti, E. (2012). Occurrence and role of umami molecules in foods. International journal of food sciences and nutrition , 63 (7), 871-881.
Halpern, B. P. (2002). What's in a name? Are MSG and umami the same?. Chemical senses , 27 (9), 845-846.
Kurihara, K. (2015). Umami the Fifth Basic Taste: History of Studies on Receptor Mechanisms and Role as a Food Flavor. Biomed Research International , 2015 , 1-10. doi: 10.1155/2015/189402
Mouritsen, O., Duelund, L., Petersen, M., Hartmann, A., & Frøst, M. (2018). Umami taste, free amino acid composition, and volatile compounds of brown seaweeds. Journal of Applied Phycology , 31 (2), 1213-1232. doi: 10.1007/s10811-018-1632-x
Ninomiya, K. (2015). Science of umami taste: adaptation to gastronomic culture. Flavour , 4 (1). doi: 10.1186/2044-7248-4-13
Zhao, G. Q., Zhang, Y., Hoon, M. A., Chandrashekar, J., Erlenbach, I., Ryba, N. J., & Zuker, C. S. (2003). The receptors for mammalian sweet and umami taste. Cell , 115 (3), 255-266.
