“Because it’s delicious’” is the typical response that’s given when you ask someone why they are reluctant to reduce the amount of meat that they eat. Despite clear evidence of both health and environmental benefits of cutting back on red and processed meat, taste invariably trumps all.
But what exactly is it about cooked flesh that is quite so delectable to so many? This question is one worth asking now, in the context of our rapidly warming planet, given that animal agriculture contributes to around 14.5 percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions. Understanding why meat is so hard to relinquish can help us promote more sustainable, plant-based diets and inspire the creation of tasty, animal-free proteins that replicate the unique deliciousness of meat.
Yummy Umami
Humans are naturally drawn to two of the five major taste categories—sweet and umami. These preferences have an evolutionary basis, signaling foods that held a survival advantage for our ancestors. Sweetness indicates sugary fruits, rich in valuable calories, while umami is released from the breakdown of muscle tissues, which leads to free amino acids such as glutamate, and nucleotides like inosinate and guanylate. Umami flavor thus signposts protein-rich foods, such as animal carcasses, which provided essential nutrients for the growth and repair of our ancestors’ bodies.
Umami, often described as the taste that brings the “yum” factor, is that savory, meaty rich flavor found cured meats, soy sauce, and parmesan cheese. By comparison, bitter tastes are more common in plant-based foods such as coffee, broccoli, kale, cocoa and grapefruit. Bitter compounds are known to benefit health, such as polyphenols or flavonoids, as well as signaling potentially poisonous food. Consequently, we’ve evolved an inherent sensitivity and adversity to bitter flavors to protect us from ingesting something that could kill us.
The Bitter Truth of Sustainable Food
While these taste preferences were advantageous to our ancestors, they pose a challenge in today’s quest for a sustainable and healthy food system. Plant-based diets, the most environmentally-friendly eating pattern, are far lower in sweetness and umami and far higher in bitter flavours. This makes them less appealing to many, which could explain why many plant-based dishes and products have yet to reach widespread acceptance.
Our children often need some encouragement to eat their greens, going against a strong innate preference for candy over carrots, while many adults have also struggled to acquire a taste for healthy, sustainable meals that a re rich in bitter greens, beans and legumes. As a result, salt is often added to plant-based products and dishes during manufacturing and at the table. This practice has led to criticisms that plant-based foods are unhealthy, a view that overlooks the potential of sensory science and culinary creativity to make meat-free meals that are both delicious and healthy.
Unlocking Umami with Global Cuisines
One easy way to boost the flavor of plant-based dishes is to incorporate umami-rich ingredients, with research suggesting this has the potential to cut salt consumption by 22 percent. Various cuisines around the world have evolved unique approaches to umami-rich cookery. The Japanese, for example, excel in using sauces and condiments like miso paste, dashi broth, and kombu extracts. Other regions offer their own rich umami options, like fish sauce and shrimp paste in Thailand, oyster and hoisin sauces in China, tamarind paste in India, mole in Mexico, and, love it or hate, Marmite in Britain.
Fish and seafood extracts feature heavily on this list, creating umami-rich dishes that are great for flexitarians but not so suitable vegetarians and vegans. There is, however, also a diversity of plant-based umami sources to choose from. For example, grilled Shiitake and portobello mushrooms, roasted or dried tomatoes, seaweed, olives or kale. For many years, vegans have also relied on the retro classic of nutritional yeast, which adds both a punchy flavor and essential B-vitamins to their cooking.
Conversely, for those wishing to cut back, but not completely eliminate, meat from their diet, adding very small amounts of umami-rich meats, such as salami or chorizo, to otherwise vegetarian dishes can also produce delicious, meaty, yet lower-carbon meals.
Recent market trends reflect increasing consumer interest in umami-rich foods, with parmesan sales growing at a rate of 4.8% 2024, while sundried tomatoes sales rose by 5%. The global umami flavor market is projected to reach $1.95 billion by 2032, with an emphasis on natural umami flavors, rather than monosodium glutamate, or MSG additives, as consumer awareness of ultra-processed foods rises.
Boosting Flavor with Fermentation
Fermentation is also gaining attention as a natural, cost-effective way to unlock umami. Microbes that act on food during fermentation release amino acids such as glutamate which lead to the unique flavors found in kimchi, sauerkraut and miso. These foods also represent a double win, because they not only appeal to our archaic palates, but are also rich sources of probiotic bacteria that support our microbiome. The fermented food and drink market is expected to reach $1.25 trillion by 2034, reflecting growing consumer interest in this category.
Plant-Based Power Pairings
Careful pairing of foods with complementary flavor profiles can also boost umami yumminess. Although debate remains as to whether harmonious combinations are, in fact, universally appealing rather than culturally-specific, this hasn’t stopped a number of research organizations and start-ups, such as Foodpairing from using artificial intelligence to identify foods with different flavor notes and their optimal co-pairings. Classic complementary examples include beef and tomato, bacon and eggs, ham and cheese or oysters and champagne. Pairing umami with other tastes can add further benefits, such as neutralising bitterness or enhancing sweetness and saltiness, explaining why mixing a dash of umami-rich condiments like soy sauce to soups or stews can improve the taste so much.
For promoting plant-based diets, food pairings offer an excellent way to make meat-free meals more appealing. Good examples of entirely animal-free pairs include sun dried tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms, miso and seaweed, kimchi and toasted sesame seeds, and aubergine with tomato and capers.
Given how important umami is to the experience of a satisfying meal, it’s time to consider umami-rich condiments, extras, and combinations as more than just humble accompaniments to a meal. Rather, to successfully promote healthy and sustainable plant-based diets, it seems we need to starting getting serious about our sauces and sides.
Dr. Sophie Attwood is a Cambridge University-trained behavioral scientist who works with companies, governments, and the third sector to use insights and methods from behavioral science to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing human health, wellbeing, and the future of our planet. Sophie is an affiliate researcher at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a certified member of the British Psychological Society (CPsych). Her research has featured in high impact peer-reviewed journals and international news media. For more information, visit www.behaviorglobal.com
