Adding soy sauce to certain foods may enhance perception of saltiness and enable food manufacturers to cut salt content without affecting taste, according to research from the Centre for Innovative Consumer Studies and Kikkoman Europe.
Salad dressings, soup and stir-fried pork with an increasing amount of naturally brewed soy sauce and a decreasing amount of salt were used by the researchers. Soy sauce was capable of reducing the salt content of salad dressings, soup and stir-fried pork by 50, 17 and 29 per cent, respectively, without affecting the overall taste or product pleasantness. Soy sauce may work by enhancing the perception of saltiness, the study proposed.
In a population of almost completely nonusers of soy sauce, the association between soy sauce odour and saltiness might not be very strong. For those people it will take time to get used to the odour and taste.
According to Stefanie Kremer, who led the research, the results offer new possibilities to food manufacturers:"Lowering the salt content is a hot item. Our research reveals that it is possible to replace salt partly by naturally brewed soy sauce."
The results of the soy sauce research are published in Journal of Food Science, Food Navigator and the Dutch Journal of Food Technology.