Umami
Umami ( from Japanese: うま味, pronounced [ɯmami]), or savoriness, is one of the five basic tastes. It is characteristic of broths and cooked meats.
People taste umami through taste receptors that typically respond to glutamates and nucleotides, which are widely present in meat broths and fermented products. Glutamates are commonly added to some foods in the form of monosodium glutamate (MSG), and nucleotides are commonly added in the form of disodium guanylate, inosine monophosphate (IMP) or guanosine monophosphate (GMP). Since umami has its own receptors rather than arising out of a combination of the traditionally recognized taste receptors, scientists now consider umami to be a distinct taste.
Foods that have a strong umami flavor include meats, shellfish, fish (including fish sauce and preserved fish such as Maldives fish, katsuobushi, sardines, and anchovies), dashi, tomatoes, mushrooms, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, meat extract, yeast extract, kimchi, cheeses, and soy sauce.
In 1908, Kikunae Ikeda of the University of Tokyo scientifically identified umami as a distinct taste attributed to glutamic acid. As a result, in 1909, Ikeda and Saburōsuke Suzuki founded Ajinomoto Co., Inc. which introduced the world's first umami seasoning: monosodium glutamate (MSG), marketed in Japan under the name "Ajinomoto." MSG subsequently spread worldwide as a seasoning capable of enhancing umami in a wide variety of dishes.
In 2000, researchers at the University of Miami identified the presence of umami receptors on the tongue, and in 2006, Ajinomoto’s research laboratories found similar receptors in the stomach.
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