Meat-Free Diets Need More Umami to Be Popular, Say Researchers

Understanding the science behind meaty tastes and textures could be the key for more people to switch to a planet-friendly plant diet, researchers suggest.

Ole G. Mouritsen, a professor of gastrophysics, addresses the urgent need to make changes to culinary cultures where animal-based proteins play a central role.

Replicating a little-known meaty flavour and a sensation of richness could encourage more plant-based eating, he explains.

“To ensure that there is enough food for a growing world population, to lessen the burden on the environment, and to promote healthier, sustainable eating patterns, it is crucial to transition to a diet that focuses primarily on plants as the key ingredients,” he explains. “Yet, many people dislike the taste of plants because of their texture and lack of sweetness and umami.”

‘Umami’ is the fifth, and often-overlooked, sister taste to the much more familiar sweet, salty, sour and bitter flavours.  And ‘koku’ is what Japanese researchers have crowned the experience of food as ‘mouthful’, ‘rich’ and ‘continuous’. When combined, these two could be game-changers for many people wanting to eat more plant-based foods but struggling with the tastes, Mouritsen suggests.

A new book offers key scientific descriptions of the physical characteristics of plants, mushrooms, algae, and fungi and their nutritional components, along with information about creation of texture and flavour to make plant-forward eating more palatable. Plant-Forward Cuisine is written by Mouritsen, Klavs Styrbaek, who is a chef and author, and Mariela Johansen, a translator.

In the book, the authors reveal the science behind umami and koku.

They say that the key to umami is free glutamate and nucleotides which are found in animal products by rarely in plants but in some fruits like sun-ripened tomatoes as well as in mushrooms and certain seaweeds.

Explaining that the reason we crave umami, and often struggle to find vegetables enticing, relates to fundamental plant biology and human evolution.

The authors say: “The combination of the sweet tastes from ripe fruits and of savoury tastes from cooked meat became deeply embedded early on and these have, to a large extent, driven our food preferences for many millennia.”

The science underlying koku relates to small pieces of proteins, called dipeptides and tripeptides which elicit the koku sensation. Dipeptides are known to work within umami-tasting foods and are particularly active in Gouda, Parmesan, fermented soy beans and yeast extracts.  And koku sensations can be created when tripeptides stimulate the calcium channels on the surface of the tongue. Prominent within these tripeptides are types of glutathione which – even in very small amounts – can create the sense of koku.  They can be found in garlic, beef, chicken, fish sauce, shrimp paste, soy sauce, scallops and beer.

On koku, the authors say: “Koku is a hard-to-define Japanese expression for a special concept, associated with a taste attribute that combines elements of continuity, mouthfulness and complexity.  It can enhance the sensation of umami, sweet and salty and at the same time suppress bitterness.”

The authors do stress however that it is not necessary to embrace a fully vegetarian or vegan diet. Rather, they suggest that taking a flexitarian approach, which incorporates small quantities of animal products to elicit umami, may be a more viable and lasting solution for people at large, suggesting: “small quantities of meat, fish, shellfish, molluscs, and roe, can be used to great effect in a supporting role to make a dish more appealing.”

Reference: Mouritsen OG, Mouritsen JD, Styrbæk K, Johansen M. Plant-Forward Cuisine: Basic Concepts Practical Appl. 1st ed. Routledge; 2024. doi: 10.4324/9781003478959

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