Calculated Taste Activity Values and Umami Equivalences Explain Why Dried Sha-chong (Sipunculus nudus) Is a Valuable Condiment

ABSTRACT

Active nonvolatile taste active compounds—including free amino acids, flavor 5ʹ-nucleotides, lactic acid, succinic acid, and four kinds of inorganic ions in dried Sha-chong (Sipunculus nudus)—were analyzed. The results were then used to calculate taste activity values (TAVs) and equivalent umami concentration (EUC) to evaluate their potential contributions to depth of flavor. Our results showed that the total free amino acid content of dried Sha-chong was 56.62 mg/g; glycine, arginine, and alanine as the major free amino acids, accounting for more than 76% of the total free amino acids; 5ʹ-adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and 5ʹ-inosine monophosphate (IMP) were the main flavor 5ʹ-nucleotides (128.8 and 121.0 mg/100 g); guanosine monophosphate (GMP) was present in a small amount, only 14.6 mg/100 g. Eight amino acids—especially Gly, Arg, and Ala,—three flavor 5ʹ-nucleotides, succinic acid, sodium, potassium, phosphate, and chloride ions were of high TAV greater than 1. The EUC of dried Sha-chong was 49.12 g MSG/100 g, which meant that the dried Sha-chong has a strong umami taste and is suitable for use as umami condiment.

KEYWORDS:

• Dried sha-chong
• nonvolatile taste components
• free amino acids
• umami
• taste activity value (TAV)
• equivalent umami concentration (EUC)

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Doctoral Fund Project of Guangdong Ocean University (ID:E15179).