Umami is the fifth basic taste, joining sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. It was first characterized in the early 20th century in Japan, where the word "umami" means "delicious taste" or "tasty taste." Scientists accepted umami as a basic taste in the early 2000s after discovering that it is detected by specific taste receptors on the tongue. Umami is known for its savory, rich flavor, which is mainly produced by amino acids like glutamic acid or its salt form, glutamate (sodium). When glutamate is combined with certain compounds found in foods like bonito, dried katsuobushi, or yeast extracts, the flavor becomes more pronounced, a phenomenon known as synergy. Despite its importance, umami is one of the least understood and hardest-to-describe tastes, partly because pure umami compounds are rare. It can be found in a variety of foods, including algae like kombu, mushrooms such as shiitake and truffle, aged cheeses like Parmesan and Comté, cured meats like salami and dried ham, fresh fish—especially bonito and salmon—and seafood like shrimp, crabs, and scallops. Tomato juice is another common source of umami. The discovery of umami can be traced back to 1826, when French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin described a specific taste associated with the water-soluble part of meat. In 1866, German chemist Karl Heinrich Ritthausen identified glutamic acid by breaking down wheat gluten. The concept of umami was introduced in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda, a Japanese chemist who isolated glutamate from dried seaweed and described its unique taste properties. In 1913, Professor Shintaro Kodama highlighted the synergy of glutamate with compounds derived from RNA degradation. The umami flavor receptor, called TAS1R1/TAS1R3, was identified in human papillae in 2002, which led to the scientific acceptance of umami as the fifth basic taste. Its physiological role is to detect amino acids, helping the body identify foods rich in proteins and other essential molecules. Ingredients rich in umami compounds have been used for centuries to enhance cooking. Garum, a condiment used in ancient Rome, was made by fermenting pickled fish. It is similar to nuoc-mâm, a Vietnamese sauce made from fermented fish in brine, and pissalat, a French sauce made from fish. Soy sauce, originally from China, was introduced in Japan and became popular worldwide. Worcestershire sauce, invented in 1837, contains anchovies, onions, and various spices. Viandox, based on soy sauce, yeast extract, and meat extract, was launched in France in the 1920s. Japanese cooking is particularly known for emphasizing umami. Unlike French cuisine, which layers different flavors and ingredients, Japanese cuisine aims to highlight the natural essence of ingredients like fish, seafood, and seaweed. Glutamate, the salt of glutamic acid, is commonly used as a flavor enhancer in the form of monosodium glutamate (E621). It is the most concentrated free amino acid in breast milk, present at a concentration of 175 milligrams per liter. Since this amount exceeds the threshold of what humans can detect (120 milligrams per liter), umami is one of the first flavors babies are exposed to. Genetic studies have shown that giant pandas are insensitive to the umami taste. As strict herbivores, they eat mostly bamboo, and their diet does not require detecting protein-rich foods. The gene encoding one of the subunits of the umami receptor (TAS1R1 and TAS1R3) is defective in giant pandas, leading to an inactive umami-like receptor. This gene was likely lost during evolution, as the species' survival did not depend on identifying protein-rich foods.