Experimental studies of food choices and palatability responses in European subjects exposed to the Umami taste.

In the Western world, consumers have only recently learned to discriminate the Umami taste, although they have enjoyed its contribution to the palatability of traditional dishes for centuries. The flavor enhancing properties of MSG have been scientifically investigated in European subjects. By adding MSG to such foods as soups, their content in sodium can be decreased without altering palatability, thus favoring a net decrease in sodium intake. Consumers presented with a novel food often have to get accustomed to the new taste before they acquire a preference for the food. A study showed that when such novel foods are added with some appropriate amount of MSG, consumers acquire a preference for them more rapidly. In elderly persons, the addition of MSG to nutritionally valuable foods (soups, vegetables, starches) did induce an increase of intake of MSG-added foods. Total meal size, however, was not affected, since the increased intake of MSG-containing foods was followed by a decreased consumption of foods served later in the meal, such as desserts. The same observations were repeated in hospitalized diabetic patients. Again, the patients ingested more healthy MSG-containing foods and less of other foods, with the same total meal energy intake. These two studies suggested that MSG could be used to stimulate appropriate food choices in certain populations.