Taste producing components in fish and fisheries products: A review

The extractive constituents, which are known as taste active components of fisheries products in many research works have been reviewed..This review found glutamate, glycine, alanine, arginine, proline, valine, methionine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, inosine 5’-monophosphate (IMP), adenosine 5’monophosphate (AMP), guanosine 5’-monophosphate (GMP), trimethylamine, trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), glycine betaine, lactate, succinate as important contributors to the taste of raw and processed fisheries products. Sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami are the basic tastes, defined by these taste active components. Sweet taste is imparted by glycine, alanine, TMAO while bitter taste by arginine and other hydrophobic amino acids. Glutamate has a role in sour taste, and contributes to umami taste through synergetic effects in co-existence of IMP, GMP and AMP. The large amount of alanine or glutamate suppresses the sweetness effect of glycine through antagonistic effect. However, these taste-producing components vary with species, environments, various processing methods and relative quantities among them. ©2012 New Delhi Publishers. All rights reserved