The word ‘Kokumi’ combines the Japanese words koku (richness) and mi (taste) and it is a sensory concept that has long been recognised in Japanese cuisine.
While it is often described as a taste sensation, Kokumi differs from the five basic tastes—sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami—because it does not deliver a distinct taste on its own. Instead, kokumi enhances existing flavours, increasing perceptions of richness, mouthfeel and overall flavour depth1.
Kokumi is commonly associated with foods such as aged cheeses, fermented products, yeast extracts, wine and slow-cooked dishes. These foods are often perceived as more satisfying and succulent due to the presence of kokumi-active compounds.
Interestingly, garlic has also been mentioned in early kokumi focused research as Ueda et al.2 reported that water extracts from garlic enhance umami taste intensity.
How food tastes is one of the most important aspects when it comes to consumer food choices and preferences. This may be a contributing factor to the increased fascination with taste modulators such as kokumi in recent years.
What is the Science of Kokumi?
Kokumi acts as a flavour enhancer and is unlike umami, which is a distinct taste perception by itself. Kokumi peptides amplify characteristics such as fullness, body and lasting flavour, working alongside umami, sweetness and saltiness to create a more rounded sensory experience1.
Research suggests that compounds such as glutathione and γ-glutamyl peptides contribute to kokumi perception1,3. These compounds are generated during ageing, fermentation and cooking processes, which helps explain why matured cheeses, fermented foods and slow-cooked stews develop greater flavour complexity over time.
At a physiological level, kokumi substances are believed to interact with calcium-sensing receptors (CaSR) on taste cells4, that transmit signals to our brain. Activation of these receptors enhances other taste signals, increasing perceptions of thickness, continuity and flavour intensity rather than creating a new taste quality.
Studies have shown that there is a correlation between the amount of calcium-sensing receptor activity and the intensity of richness associated with kokumi5,6.
Why Kokumi is Important for Food Innovation
Kokumi has attracted growing interest within the food industry because of its potential to improve taste while supporting both clean-label product development and sodium reduction strategies.
Product Application and Clean Label Solutions
The development of plant-based alternatives to animal-derived foods has accelerated in recent years, driven by sustainability and health considerations.
However, many plant-based products, including meat and dairy alternatives, often provide lower perceptions of taste continuity, flavour richness and overall mouthfeel compared with their animal-derived counterparts1. These sensory limitations can negatively affect consumer acceptance and repeat purchase.
As taste-modulating compounds, kokumi substances have attracted interest for their potential to enhance flavour complexity and positive sensory attributes, including mouthfeel and overall flavour intensity, thereby helping to more closely replicate the sensory characteristics associated with animal-based foods7,8.
Research has shown that γ-glutamyl peptides contribute to kokumi perception and are associated with increased CaSR activation in products such as dry-cured ham7,9,10.
In addition, plant-based meat analogues formulated from legumes may exhibit undesirable bitter notes and several kokumi-active compounds have been reported to suppress bitterness while enhancing overall flavour perception11,12.
Together, these properties suggest that kokumi ingredients could improve the sensory quality and consumer appeal of plant-based food products13.
Furthermore, the combination of kokumi compounds with appropriate flavour systems may help deliver savoury sensory characteristics comparable to those found in conventional meat products14.
However, the effects of kokumi substances are highly dependent on the food matrix in which they are incorporated. As flavour modulators rather than primary taste contributors, their impact on sensory perception can vary considerably between products, making their functionality difficult to predict across different food systems.
Further application-focused research is therefore needed to better understand and optimise their use in plant-based formulations.
Reformulation – Sodium Reduction
Because kokumi substances enhance taste intensity, they are considered useful for addressing public health issues such as reducing salt, fat and sugar intake1,15.
Given increasing consumer interest in healthier food choices, their application may help overcome key sensory barriers associated with reformulation and facilitate efforts to improve dietary health outcomes1.
The need to reduce sodium in food products while maintaining consumer-acceptable sensory quality has driven interest in taste-modulating peptides, especially kokumi15,16.
γ-Glutamyl peptides, a key class of kokumi-active compounds, have been shown to enhance saltiness perception17.
Growing evidence from application-focused studies suggests that the addition of kokumi-active and saltiness-enhancing peptides at low inclusion levels can partially offset reductions in salt while maintaining sensory acceptability and overall product palatability15.
As taste perception naturally declines with age, maintaining the palatability of foods becomes increasingly important to support adequate food intake and help reduce the risk of malnutrition.
Older adults often experience diminished sensitivity to taste, which can encourage the addition of extra salt to enhance flavour. Consequently, kokumi has the potential to reduce salt intakes in this population cohort, which may improve their heart health outcomes.
However, translation of these findings into food applications remains limited15. Published studies have predominantly evaluated kokumi ingredients in savoury liquid and semi-solid matrices, including broth-like systems, selected meat products, sweet beverages and reduced-fat foods1.
A more comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms through which kokumi peptides enhance saltiness perception is needed to inform the rational design of sodium-reduced foods.
In parallel, evaluation of their flavour interactions, stability during processing and safety in diverse food systems will be important to support wider commercial application.
