The umami taste, one of the five primary tastes, has been shown to be a helpful tool in reducing salt intake and improving eating patterns. This study aimed to investigate how umami taste is perceived and evaluated in a sample of adult participants living in Eastern Europe, taking into account their sex, education, and travel habits. A Text Semantic-mining Analysis (TSA) was conducted using data from 300 adults (152 males and 148 females, mean age = 26.71 years). They also performed an MSG and NaCl (salt) discrimination test and were further interviewed about taste preferences, travel habits, and type of residence. The results indicated that the taste sensation elicited by the MSG solution was complex, unfamiliar and had negative valence. The descriptor most commonly used for MSG was "sour," followed by "bitter" and "salty" for the whole group, but these differed by gender. There was no difference in umami preference between males and females, but males preferred spicy flavors while females favored sweet and salty tastes. This finding underscores the potential bias and unknown significance of umami taste, suggesting the importance of establishing an accurate concept in European culture and promoting its usage in food choices for better health.

An association of food sources with odors prominently guides foraging behavior in animals. To understand the interaction of olfactory memory and food preferences, we used glucose-averse (GA) German cockroaches. Multiple populations of cockroaches evolved a gustatory polymorphism where glucose is perceived as a deterrent and enables GA cockroaches to avoid eating glucose-containing toxic baits. Comparative behavioral analysis using an operant conditioning paradigm revealed that learning and memory guide foraging decisions. Cockroaches learned to associate specific food odors with fructose (phagostimulant, reward) within only a 1 hr conditioning session, and with caffeine (deterrent, punishment) after only three 1 hr conditioning sessions. Glucose acted as reward in wild type (WT) cockroaches, but GA cockroaches learned to avoid an innately attractive odor that was associated with glucose. Olfactory memory was retained for at least 3 days after three 1 hr conditioning sessions. Our results reveal that specific tastants can serve as potent reward or punishment in olfactory associative learning, which reinforces gustatory food preferences. Olfactory learning therefore reinforces behavioral resistance of GA cockroaches to sugar-containing toxic baits. Cockroaches may also generalize their olfactory learning to baits that contain the same or similar attractive odors even if they do not contain glucose.