Kokumi, Communication and Solutions

Culinary Communication and Kokumi

This is my latest blog as European Development Chef at IMCD.

I was reminded this week when talking to a customer about how easy it is to throw culinary terminology into conversations and assume that everyone knows what you mean, or at least share the same interpretation of a concept that you do. In this blog I will share with you the specific example but later I will use it to widen the conversation on communication in general.

The term we were discussing was “Kokumi” and the customer was telling me that someone described it to him as “the sixth taste”. I was intrigued by that as I have always considered Kokumi to be a sense or feeling rather than a taste. To me Kokumi is the sense of richness, the feeling that the flavour is complete, full and whole. Not to be confused with Umami which is savouriness and meatiness. Confused? I don’t blame you.

Officially (according to Google at least) Kokumi is a Japanese word that translates as “rich taste” or “delicious” and it comes from the heightened activation of calcium receptors on your tongue. Having said that it is a sensation that scientists have had trouble pinpointing because it is not achieved with a single molecule.?It is a sensation that is activated by?glutamyl?peptides that occur?naturally in fermented foods.

What does that mean? In simple terms it enhances the taste of pretty much everything, beef is meatier, chocolate is richer and fruitier, dairy drinks have better mouthfeel and broths or gravies more complex.

Given the rise of clean label and salt and sugar reduction kokumi creates a particular richness for low-fat foods or a salty sensation for low-sodium foods, an area we specialise in.

How does that translate into our product portfolio? Who better to ask than Paul Lees, Senior Development Chef for our principal partner Givaudan based in Milton Keynes.

“Back in 2014 Givaudan launched TasteSolution? Richness, a new generation of flavours for the food manufacturing industry. The technology includes a complex blend of taste and aroma components which work together to provide an authentic?flavour profile for consumers and offers a multi-layering of flavours beyond the traditional ingredients used in food service concepts, snacks and ready meals.

TasteSolution? Richness is a remarkable?innovation in taste that brings the?time dimension back to prepared foods - recreating the taste complexity from traditional cooking techniques achieved through slow cooking and multi-step cooking processes into a new flavour approach.

The Richness flavours were launched following the Givaudan 2014 Chef Council event in New York. Focussing on the culinary exploration of taste, Givaudan chefs, flavourists and scientists partnered with world-leading chefs, to investigate taste effects in food, and translate the experience from haute cuisine to convenience products.

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Whilst Umami is known as the fifth taste, giving juiciness, succulence & mouthfeel, chefs talk of Kokumi as a Japanese word that literally means "Rich Taste", giving more richness, body and complexity to foods. Think taste sensations naturally occurring?in fermented foods like alcohol, soy sauce, fish sauces and shrimp paste and in dishes and ingredients such as?slow braised meats, vine ripened tomatoes and aged parmesan cheese”

?Paul Lees

At IMCD we have a comprehensive range of solutions to provide depth and richness to your products but as always, the key challenge here is the same one we encounter everyday: To really understand our customer needs and be able to recommend products that fit the brief as accurately as possible first time. That can only happen through dialogue with you, our customers.

Dialogue is the key to our continued success and even more so where terminology is widely banded about. Blanket terms like Innovation, Sustainability, Market Leading, Healthy and On Trend down to more specific terms like Sodium and Sugar Reduction, Low Fat, Clean Label etc. They all mean different things to different people. Our skill lies in deciphering what you really want, how you want it to work and what you are using it in?

If you think IMCD can help you or you would like to know more then please let me know.

Thanks for reading,

Colin Wheeler-James

[email protected]