Food scientists find 50 flavour compounds in soy sauce

The simple salty sauce is surprisingly complex.

Soy sauce is not only one of the world’s oldest condiments, it’s also one of the most popular – at least eight million tonnes is consumed globally each year. But what gives soy sauce its complex salty, umami flavour that makes it so delicious?

Soy sauce originated in

China more than 2,500 years ago, and is made by fermenting a combination of salt, enzymes and mashed soybeans. However, decoding the flavours of this food is particularly challenging because of the complex processes involved in its creation, including the microbial breakdown of compounds over time.

Now, in a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a team has identified 34 key tastants – chemicals that produce a taste sensation by activating taste receptor cells (TRCS) and taste-related pathways of the nervous system.

They then combined these compounds to try to recreate the taste of soy sauce. But a panel of 27 assessors found that this recreation didn’t taste quite right. The team hypothesised that small proteins could be missing from its batch, and used a sensoproteomics approach to identify 14 umami, kokumi and salt-enhancing peptides present in concentrations of 166–939 micromoles per litre .

The addition of these to their sauce of now over 50 flavour compounds produced a condiment with comparable complexity, taste intensities and ‘mouthfulness’ to the real deal. Some of the salt-enhancing proteins gave a salty sensation, which had only previously been brought on by table salt and other minerals. These salt-flavoured peptides could potentially serve as a seasoning alternative to table salt that could be better for your heart.