Umami: A Century Of Disbelief

<p><span>Salty, sweet, sour, bitter. Scientists once thought these were the only tastes, but in the early 20th century, a Japanese chemist dissected his favorite kombu broth and discovered one more: umami. In recent years, umami has become a foodie buzzword, but for nearly a century, the Western world was in full-blown umami denial—didn’t believe it existed. And we might have stayed that way if it weren’t for our most notorious and potent source of umami: MSG.</span></p> <p><span> </span></p> <div class="embedded-image" style="max-width: 800px;"><img class="mcePuppyImage" src="https://media.wnyc.org/i/800/528/l/80/2020/08/ajinomoto-reduced.png" alt=""> <div class="image-metadata"> <div class="image-caption">A 1930s advertisement for Ajinomoto.</div> <div class="image-credit">(Courtesy of the Science History Institute.)</div> </div> </div> <p><span> </span></p> <div class="embedded-image" style="max-width: 800px;"><img class="mcePuppyImage" src="https://media.wnyc.org/i/800/528/l/80/2020/08/accent-reduced.png" alt=""> <div class="image-metadata"> <div class="image-caption">Advertising brochure from the late 1940s until the early 1950s for Ac'cent, an MSG product manufactured by the International Minerals &amp; Chemical Corporation.</div> <div class="image-credit">(Courtesy of the Science History Institute.)</div> </div> </div> <p><span> </span></p> <div class="embedded-image" style="max-width: 800px;"><img class="mcePuppyImage" src="https://media.wnyc.org/i/800/528/l/80/2020/08/kikunae-reduced.png" alt=""> <div class="image-metadata"> <div class="image-caption">Kikunae Ikeda, who proposed the idea of umami as a fifth basic taste.</div> <div class="image-credit">(Wikimedia Commons)</div> </div> </div> <h3> </h3> <h3>Guest: </h3> <p>Nirupa Chaudhari is a professor of physiology &amp; biophysics at the University of Miami.</p> <p>Kumiko Ninomiya is the director of the Umami Information Center. </p> <h3>Footnotes &amp; Further Reading: </h3> <p>Special thanks to <a href="https://sarahetracy.com/" target="_blank">Sarah