About This Project

We are interested in investigating the umami intensity of food ingredients using quantitative models. Much of the experience of deliciousness associated with proteins, including meat, dairy, and fungi, is tied to compounds that elicit umami, however, public data on umami is limited. We plan to extract data from the research literature to develop a model to evaluate the umami intensity in any food. We anticipate finding that popular savory foods possess an optimal umami intensity.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Consumer acceptance of food products is dependent on the sensory properties of the food. For savory foods, umami is one of the five basic tastes that is triggered by the presence of amino acids and nucleotides in food.

Human perception and enjoyment of umami compounds are some of the drivers of our consumption of meat, dairy, mushrooms, and other savory foods.

The rise of alternative proteins, including plant-based proteins, fungal and mycelial products, and fermentation products, requires a more detailed understanding of how umami perception is impacted by food ingredients, especially from non-animal sources.

The project aims to design an open-access model that allows users to calculate the umami intensity of a food product or recipe based on its ingredient composition.

What is the significance of this project?

Most large companies in the food industry rely on sensory data generated from trials with human participants to determine if a food product is desirable to consumers.

However, these types of analyses are expensive, time-consuming, and tedious to analyze, making them inaccessible for amateur cooks, culinary professionals, and commercial organizations with lower budgets, such as food startups, small businesses, and restaurants.

Much of the quantitative analyses regarding umami and its relationship to compounds in food ingredients have already been conducted in the research literature.

By constructing an open access model that can be used to estimate the umami intensity of foods, we hope to support these stakeholders in developing enjoyable food from alternative ingredient sources.

What are the goals of the project?

Our first goal will be to collect and consolidate the known research literature linking umami taste with chemical composition and numerical data. We plan to extract this data and corresponding equations that relate to known intensity synergies between umami compounds.

Other data will include known intensities linked to Maillard reaction products of umami compounds, which will yield a relationship between cooking to the modification of umami content within foods.

Additionally, data regarding the concentration of umami-eliciting compounds in food ingredients will be collected.

These will then be consolidated to generate an algorithmic model in which users can input ingredients, temperature, and time, and receive a single value output linked to umami intensity.