Kerry launches Explore Umami and Kokumi initiative
Kerry has embarked on its Explore Umami and Kokumi initiative that invites food product developers to access the company’s extensive resources on these two intriguing tastes.
The components of the campaign include a research report that explores umami trends in Asia, as well as articles that explain how umami and kokumi work synergistically to deliver authentic, complex, multidimensional, preference-driving taste.
Kerry also announced the development of a new, industry-first taste lexicon for umami and kokumi, as well as a portfolio of clean label solutions.
The research report – Redefining Umami: An exploration of umami and flavour-building – identified four key areas about consumer taste preference and hot trends in chefs’ culinary space:
- a move toward taste complexity;
- consumer acceptance of sour, bitter and umami tastes;
- increasing call for holistic taste experiences;
- reduced public acceptance of processed, industrialised food production.
These and other themes are examined in this exploratory report as it discusses building taste using traditional Asian ingredients. Topics discussed include dashi from Japan, tempeh from Indonesia and kimchi, jang and sikcho from Korea.
Umami — also known as the fifth taste — elevates, enriches and improves succulence, while kokumi brings depth, fullness of the mouth and richness. Used together, they ensure depth, roundness and deliciousness for savoury products in a variety of applications, including prepared meals, soups, sauces, snacks, meat and meat-alternatives tailored to suit local markets.
This report exploring taste-building in Asian cuisine, along with other Kerry umami and kokumi informational resources, can be downloaded here from the Kerry website.
“There’s an enormous emerging opportunity in savoury taste for chefs and product developers around the world to create new and exciting food innovations based on umami and kokumi,” said Kay Marshallsay, PhD, Kerry’s global product director, Fermentation.
“To assist in the process, Kerry first spoke to chefs across Asia about how they create umami and kokumi tastes, and then worked to develop ways to make these scalable and accessible to the food industry at large. This new research report provides an on-the-ground perspective that details the emerging global taste trends emanating from Asian cuisine.”
