Determination of Characteristic Taste Compounds of Crayfish by ¹H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

In order to investigate the nonvolatile taste-active components in crayfish, free amino acids, nucleotides, organic acids, soluble sugars and alkaloids in cooked crayfish muscle were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed by ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR). Their taste activity values (TAVs) and equivalent umami concentration (EUC) were calculated to evaluate the key taste-active compounds and umami attributes, respectively. The results suggested that a total of 33 taste-active compounds were detected, among which arginine, histidine, glutamic acid, alanine, lysine, glycine, adenosine 5’-monophosphate (AMP), inosine 5’-mononucleotide (IMP), succinic acid and lactic acid were the key taste-active compounds with TAVs greater than 1.0, and they played an important role in the taste of crayfish. The EUC of crayfish was 9.1 g monosodium glutamate (MSG)/100 g, indicating very intense umami taste.