Arvind Subbaraj

1 Introduction In response to growing concerns about the environmental impacts of contemporary food systems, there is evidence that segments of consumers are actively seeking foods they perceive as more sustainable (von Meyer-Höfer et al. 2015), and market demand for products carrying sustainability-related attributes continues to increase (Lucas et al. 2021; Nes et al. 2024).

1 INTRODUCTION The world's food supply comes from a remarkably small number of species. Globally, around 75% of the world's food comes from only 12 plant species and five animal species, and only three species (rice, wheat, and maize) contribute to 60% of total calories and proteins consumed. Furthermore, while there are around 250,000–300,000 known edible plant species worldwide, only 150–200 are regularly consumed by people (FAO, 1999).

Introduction γ-Glutamyl peptides (GGP) and free aromatic amino acids (FAA) are recognised as kokumi flavour substances (KS) which activate calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) in taste buds to impart kokumi sensory attributes including thickness, mouthfulness and continuity (Ohsu et al., 2010; Ahmad & Dalziel, 2020). Kokumi substances found in several types of fermented foods are used as flavour enhancers (Kuroda & Miyamura, 2015; Miyamura et al., 2015; Kuroda et al., 2020).