NONVOLATILE TASTE COMPONENTS AND FUNCTIONAL COMPOUNDS OF COMMERCIAL SOY SAUCE PRODUCTS.

Soy sauce is an indispensable seasoning sauce in East and Southeast Asian countries, and its umami taste and functional compounds were studied. Four soy sauce products were grade A products with varied pH values (pH = 4.90-5.09), specific gravities (1.112-1.186), total solids (29.23-30.74 g/100 mL) and protein contents (8.34-9.51 g/100 mL). The equivalent umami concentrations differed and varied from 15.34 to 285.83 g monosodium glutamate/100 mL. Product A contained higher amounts of total isoflavones (14.58 μg/mL), but product B contained no isoflavone. Besides, four products contained high contents of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA; 210.34-514.36 μg/mL) and two ranges of ergothioneine (1.98-2.04 and 10.57-10.61 μg/mL). Principal component analysis showed that four kinds of soy sauce products had entirely different profiles of parameters and compounds. Overall, these four products would give rise to different umami perception and would provide with certain beneficial amounts of GABA and ergothioneine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]