Umami: The Fifth Taste is No Longer an NPD Mystery

摘要

Balancing sweet, sour, salty and bitter is a routine discipline of a product development team when striving to achieve a cravea-ble product. These four tastes are adjusted depending on the intended flavor of a product. The preparation method and applications also play a role in this balancing act of development. Umami is a bridge that helps bring the tastes together and to complement the cooking process, giving a product a deep savory pleasant flavor. Umami is certainly functional in product development. But it is difficult to explain and to decipher when tasting a product.