Analyzing the sensory characteristics and taste-sensor ions of MSG substitutes.

This study analyzed the sensory attributes of MSG substitutes to determine whether they exerted synergistic or inhibition effects on taste, and the correlation between sensory attributes (which are subjective measures) and the results of electronic-tongue analysis (which are objective measures). Descriptive and electronic-tongue analyses were conducted with 10 MSG substitutes comprising combinations of 3 commercial products, and with MSG. In the descriptive analysis, the sensory characteristics of MSG substitutes were evaluated using 16 attributes; and in the electronic-tongue analysis, the taste-sensor ions of MSG substitutes were evaluated using 10 taste-sensor types. Principal components analysis was applied separately to the sensory evaluation data and the electronic-tongue data to summarize the structure of each data set. Partial least-squares regression was used to assess the relationship between the sensory evaluation data and the electronic-tongue data. The MSG substitutes show different sensory attributes when they are used alone or in mixtures, suggesting the presence of synergistic or inhibitory effects between them. Therefore, when replacing MSG, the characteristics of each possible substitute should be determined in relation to the particular food system.