Kokumi and Glutathione

In a study of human participants, individual salty and umami tastes and a salty/umami combination were respectively 1.60, 1.72, and 1.74 times more intense with glutathione ( Ohsu et al. 2010 ). In addition, numerous consumer studies have concluded that glutathione (and its derivatives) enhances complex umami and salty tastes in food such as beef stock ( Hong et al. 2010 ; Jung et al. 2010 ; Kwon et al. 2011 ). For example, salty and umami tastes were 1.57 and 2.50 times more intense, respectively, when glutathione and monosodium L -glutamate (MSG) were added to beef stock, while liking was 1.60 times stronger ( Jung et al. 2010 ). These studies demonstrate that glutathione has a positive impact on the taste evaluation.