The Fifth Taste: Salt and Fat Take a Dive with Umami

What is Umami?

Umami is the fifth primary taste (of the five basic tastes) and means "pleasant savory taste" in Japanese. It is often simply referred to as "savoriness." People experience umami flavor through taste receptors that respond to glutamates and nucleotides, which are commonly found in meat broths and fermented products.

Umami can be leveraged in recipes for everything from stocks and reductions to bouillons and pastes. It has applications in many different food types, including soups, noodles, sauces, meat products and ready-to-eat meals.

Why Choose Umami?

Utilizing umami in food products is a clever way to ensure a delicious and savory flavor while also keeping the overall salt-and-fat intake of the product low for consumers. This is especially crucial for consumers who are looking for new ways to achieve a healthier diet but don't want to compromise on taste.

UMAMI vs. MSG

Many consumers confuse umami with monosodium glutamate (MSG). MSG is a widely used taste enhancer and, effectively, glutamate in its purest form. Umami, however, is a taste sensation that can be prompted by the consumption of glutamate but is also a wider taste experience than that of just consuming MSG.

With umami, the rich taste consumers crave is delivered when an umami-flavored taste composition hits the fifth-taste receptors at the back of the mouth.

While MSG does not contain as much sodium as pure salt, its levels of sodium are particularly high, and many food manufacturers are looking for different taste-intensifying solutions for their consumers.

Set Aside the Sodium

Umami taste compositions can help reduce overall salt consumption. According to a 2023 study by BMC Health, adding umami to food products can help reduce salt intake by 12.8 - 22.3% (as observed in surveying a group of 21,085 adults) without compromising taste. Umami has the unique ability to deliver a savory boost of flavor while being more healthful than MSG or pure salt. Ultimately, umami can serve as a key alternative to salt to ensure food tastes great and to reduce unhealthy levels of sodium (found in salt and MSG).

This is particularly important at a time where the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that most countries are not on track to meet the organization's goals of reducing global salt intake by 30% in the year 2025.

Lose the Fat

Consumers love salty and fatty foods, but they know overindulging is unhealthy, so they are looking for alternatives. The umami flavor profile, as well as how consumers experience taste "meatiness," offers a great option for those consumers looking for delicious, savory foods without too much salt or fat.

Umami also increases the feeling of satiety and satisfaction, assisting consumers with portion control and aligning with the goals of those who are health-conscious or working toward specific diet goals.

How IFF is Innovating with Umami Taste Technology

IFF has further increased its expertise in umami taste compositions, which can replace MSG (or help limit the use of MSG), thereby reducing the amount of salt and fat in recipes. IFF offers a suite of tasteful, affordable and healthy umami flavor alternatives.

In fact, IFF FLAVORFIT™ taste-modulation technologies include umami options for culinary food applications. IFF FLAVORFIT™ [umami] offers a natural, clean-label alternative to MSG and other high-sodium ingredients. As an example, IFF FLAVORFIT™ [umami] solutions can replace MSG with just 0.63% of its taste composition, as compared to 6% MSG, without compromising on flavor.

IFF FLAVORFIT™ [umami] is also more complex than MSG, adding depth and rounding out an overall taste profile for consumers.

Manufacturers can partner with IFF to customize and incorporate these umami technologies to develop flavor-forward, wholesome products that align with increasing consumer demands for more healthfulness and ingredient transparency.

Staying Ahead of Emerging Trends

IFF's Panoptic trend intelligence approach is a multi-faceted process that looks at short-term to long-term consumer trends and consumer insights. Panoptic detects early signs of trends and helps to foster a shared understanding of important people-centric patterns that are not just shaping the food-and-beverage industry but also the world.

In examining shifting drivers of change and quickly changing lifestyle trends, IFF has identified five Panoptic Lifestyle Movements that impact how people live and consume. One of those key lifestyle trends is "Better-Being," which is about the pragmatic approach many consumers adopt when it comes to working toward better health, finding smarter ways to improve their health and striving to enhance how they look and feel.

With the Better-Being trend on the rise, consumers are becoming increasingly wary of high-fat and high-sodium content. Many are seeking out natural, clean-label food alternatives that help them stay on a reduced-fat or low-sodium dietary plan that doesn't sacrifice great taste.

Fortunately, IFF FLAVORFIT™ [umami] is useful in helping food manufacturers achieve delicious flavor without the heavy amounts of fat or salt - ensuring that even the most discerning consumers are pleased with the food product's ingredient list.

Partnering with IFF

IFF FLAVORFIT™ [umami] provides a full and savory flavor, a healthier alternative to MSG, less unnecessary sodium and a clean, straightforward label with natural ingredients. Its unique flavor balance and sophisticated umami taste lends itself to a wide variety of food products, allowing manufacturers to meet the growing consumer demand for umami-flavored products while still catering to more health-conscious consumers.

By partnering with IFF to utilize and customize this range of solutions, food manufacturers can gain access to a wide range of taste technologies and evolve their brands by making foods "umami-licious."

Discover more about IFF's umami solutions here.

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