Taste-active components in the mantle muscle of the oval squid Sepioteuthis lessoniana and their effects on squid taste

Using a series of omission and addition tests and sensory evaluation of synthetic extracts, the taste-active components of the mantle muscle of the oval squid (Sepioteuthis lessoniana) were determined to be glycine, alanine, proline, glutamate, arginine, adenosine 5′-monophosphate, trimethylamine oxide, glycine betaine, as well as potassium, sodium, and chloride ions. A simplified synthetic extract prepared from these 11 taste-active components was found to almost reproduce the taste of the complete synthetic extract containing 45 components of S. lessoniana muscle. This was also the case for three other squid species; Loligo bleekeri, Loligo edulis, and Todarodes pacificus. When certain components were added to the simplified synthetic extracts of these three squid species – sodium ions and glycine for L. edulis, sodium ions and arginine for L. bleekeri, chloride ions, glycine, and arginine for T. pacificus – the taste of the simplified synthetic extracts approximated the extract from S. lessoniana, which had the most preferred taste.