3312 Research Article Received: 24 July 2012 Revised: 2 April 2013 Accepted article published: 12 April 2013 Published online in Wiley Online Library: 7 June 2013 (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI 10.1002/jsfa.6177 Maximising umami taste in meat using natural ingredients: effects on chemistry, sensory perception and hedonic liking in young and old consumers Maria Dermiki, a Rana Mounayar, a Chutipapha Suwankanit, a Jennifer Scott, a Orla B Kennedy, a Donald S Mottram, a Margot A Gosney, b Heston Blumenthal c and Lisa Methven a∗ Abstract BACKGROUND: Umami taste in foods is elicited predominantly by the presence of glutamic acid and 5 ′ -ribonucleotides, which act synergistically. This study aimed to use natural ingredients to maximise umami taste of a meat formulation and determine effects on liking of older consumers. Cooked meat products with added natural ingredients (yeast extract, mycoscent, shiitake extract, tomato puree, soy sauce and soybean paste) or monosodium glutamate (MSG) were prepared and compared with a control sample analytically (umami compounds), sensorially (sensory profile) and hedonically (liking by younger and older volunteers). Taste detection thresholds of sodium chloride and MSG of volunteers were collected. RESULTS: Four of the seven cooked meat products developed had a significantly higher content of umami-contributing compounds compared with the control. All products, except those containing MSG or tomato puree, were scored (by trained sensory panel) perceptually significantly higher in umami and/or salty taste compared with the control. Consumer tests showed a correlation of liking by the older cohort with perceived saltiness (ρ = 0.76). CONCLUSION: The addition of natural umami-containing ingredients during the cooking of meat can provide enhanced umami and salty taste characteristics. This can lead to increased liking by some consumers, particularly those with raised taste detection thresholds. c  2013 Society of Chemical Industry Keywords: umami; equivalent umami concentration; taste enhancement; aging; taste thresholds; liking INTRODUCTION Umami is recognised as the fifth basic taste and is stimulated by the non-essential amino acids glutamic acid and aspartic acid and the 5 ′ -ribonucleotides. 1 There are multiple receptors for umami taste; some are glutamate-specific, such as mGluR1 and mGluR4, whereas the heterodimer T1R1 + T1R3 responds to both amino acids and 5 ′ -ribonucleotides. 2 The characteristic taste of glutamate is substantially enhanced by the presence of 5 ′ -ribonucleotides, particularly 5 ′ -inosine monophospate (5 ′ -IMP), 5 ′ -guanosine monophosphate (5 ′ -GMP), 5 ′ -xanthosine monophosphate (5 ′ -XMP) and, to a lesser degree, 5 ′ -adenosine monophosphate (5 ′ -AMP). 3,4 Based on this synergy, Yamaguchi et al. 4 proposed an equivalent umami concentration (EUC) equation that could be used to predict umami taste in solutions. The EUC is the concentration of monosodium glutamate (MSG) equivalent (defined as g per 100 g) to the umami intensity given by the mixture of glutamic acid (Glu) and aspartic acid (Asp) and the 5 ′ -ribonucleotides and is represented by the equation Y =  a i b i + 1218   a i b i   a j b j  (1) where Y is the EUC of the sample (g MSG per 100 g), a i is the concentration (g per 100 g) of each umami amino acid (Asp or Glu), a j is the concentration (g per 100 g) of each umami 5 ′ - ribonucleotide (IMP, GMP, XMP or AMP), b i is the relative umami concentration for each umami amino acid to MSG (Glu, 1; Asp, 0.077), b j is the relative umami concentration for each umami 5 ′ -ribonucleotide to IMP (IMP, 1; GMP, 2.3; XMP, 0.61; AMP, 0.18) and 1218 is a synergistic constant based on the concentration of g per 100 g used. ∗ Correspondence to: Dr Lisa Methven, Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 6AP, UK. E-mail: l.methven@reading.ac.uk a Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AP, UK b Clinical Health Sciences, University of Reading, London Road, Reading RG1 5AQ, UK c The Fat Duck, High Street, Bray Berkshire SL6 2AQ, UK J Sci Food Agric 2013; 93: 3312–3321 www.soci.org c  2013 Society of Chemical Industry