Coming soon: Fifth taste sensation Umami in a tube

LONDON - Umami, the fifth taste sensation after sweet, sour, bitter and salty, will soon be available on the high street in the UK.

Discovered by Japanese scientists 102 years ago, the flavour, it is believed, triggers the sensation of deliciousness when detected by the brain in the same way as the four other primary tastes.

Now the taste features in a number of dishes at Fat Duck restaurant in Bray, Berkshire. Diners can sample it in a seaweed and fish concoction while listening to recorded waves on an iPod, reports The Telegraph.

Umami will go on sale in 197 branches of Waitrose nationwide from next week in the form of tubes of paste. The “Taste No 5″ pur,e will also be stocked by Booths, the northern food chain.

Laura Santtini, who developed the pur,e, which includes pulped anchovy and porcini mushrooms, while she was running her family’s Italian restaurant in Belgravia, said: “I wanted to get away from the notion that umami is something of interest to scientists that no one else can really understand. The truth is that umami should be of interest to anyone who has a tongue.

“Umami is part of our everyday eating lives, it is just that many of us don’t know what to call it. It is what gives depth of flavour to food. Every food culture has its umami-rich ingredients, whether it is seaweed in Japan or Parmesan in Italy.” (ANI)