The Umami Taste of Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms

ABSTRACT: Mushrooms impart to food the second functionality of tasty properties. Th e typical mush-room fl avor consists of water-soluble taste components including free amino acids and 5′-nucleotides. Th e umami taste, also called the palatable taste, is an overall food fl avor induced or enhanced by mono-sodium glutamate (MSG). Th e umami taste of mushrooms can be greatly increased by the synergistic eff ect of umami 5 ′-nucleotides and umami amino acids. Th e equivalent umami concentration (EUC) is the concentration of MSG equivalent to the umami intensity of that given by the mixture of MSG and the 5′-nucleotide. Th is article summarizes the results of mushroom taste components from a decade of research, and calculates the EUC values of the fruit bodies and mycelia. EUC values are grouped into four levels: >1000% (>10 g MSG/g dry matter), 100–1000% (1–10 g MSG/g), 10–100% (0.1–1 g MSG/g), and 10% (<0.1 g MSG/g). Th ese EUC values are of great interest for fruit bodies and mycelia to be used as foods or food-fl avoring materials or in the formulation of health foods.