Taste Evaluation for Peptides in Protein Hydrolysates from Soybean and Other Plants

Abstract

A wide variety of peptides derived from proteins have been found in various foodstuffs and fermentation products such as miso (Takeuchi and Yoshii 1969), soy sauce (Oka and Nagata 1974a,b), natto (Yamasaki 1987), katsuobushi (Hosokawa et al. 1990), cheese (Hamilton et al. 1974), and so on. Many kinds of substances are recognized as the principle for taste, some peptides being one of them. Bitter peptides occur in protease-treated proteins as well as in fermented foods. The bitter flavor due to peptides is thus recognized as a flavor produced by food processing. A report presented by Murray and Baker (1952) seems to be the first that deals with this regard. Shortly after, Raadsvelt (1953) reported that a bitter flavor of cheese is due primarily to some peptide. Bitter peptides are formed not only from milk proteins but also from many other proteins by treatment with proteases. Many bitter peptides have been isolated from various sources, and the relationship between bitterness and structure has been well studied (Guigoz and Solms 1976).