Umamamia
Adding umami taste to meat and dairy alternatives on a scalable level, from only peas and salt.
Active Next round Seed Denmark BiotechUmamamia are bringing umami flavour to meat and dairy alternatives – the currently missing part of these alternatives.
Most plants contain very little to no umami, while meat is rich in umami, which makes it difficult to give up. Usually umami is added with mushrooms or soy, but these products have taste profiles that would not fit in e.g. a slice of cheese.
The team behind Umamamia have developed a scalable production method for Umamamia’s new clean label umami product, UmamiFix, made from only peas and salt.
Umamamia employs fermentation technology to enhance the umami taste derived from pulses. By understanding and replicating the natural bioprocesses, they’ve created an organic, clean label product for the food industry. This product allows companies to incorporate pulses into their offerings, producing great tasting plant based or hybrid products.
Last updated July 19, 2024
Founding team
Martin Decara, CEO
With an educational background in engineering and innovation, Martin has already been part of several startups, and has used that experience to become Co-Founder of Umamamia.
Charlotte Vinther Scmidt, CTO
Charlotte has a PhD in Food Science and umami from University of Copenhagen, and has worked for both Toms and University of Copenhagen, before joining Umamamia as Co-Founder.
Articles
New portfolio company brings umami flavour to plant-based products
10/01/2024 @ Accelerace
Jagten på den rette smag til vegansk og bæredygtig cheddar
@ Food & Bio Cluster Denmark
Established: 2022
Investment: 2023
Our investment thesis
One of the biggest shifts in consumer behavior is the adoption of plant-based meat and dairy alternatives. But often, the taste of meat and dairy alternatives is unsatisfactory. In fact, inferior taste is often quoted by consumers as one of the main reasons for not buying plant-based meat and dairy alternatives. The flavor that consumers are missing is umami. There are ways to add umami with things like mushrooms and soy – but these have strong flavor profiles that would be strange in a slice of cheese. Chemists or people familiar with Asian cuisine would know that the chemical compound MSG can be used to add umami, but food producers are reluctant to use it because of the negative perception of MSG among western consumers. The optimal solution for food producers would be a neutral tasting umami, which is what Umamamia produces.