A review of taste‐active compounds in meat: Identification, influencing factors, and taste transduction mechanism

Abstract Poultry and livestock meat are important parts of the human diet. As living standards have improved, food taste has become a major influence on consumer quality assessment and meat purchasing choices. There is increasing research interest in meat taste and meat taste‐active compounds, which include free amino acids, flavor nucleotides, taste‐active peptides, organic acids, soluble sugars, and inorganic ions. Taste component research is also an important part of sensory science. A deeper understanding of the meat taste perception mechanism and interactions among different taste compounds will promote the development of meat science and sensory evaluation. This article reviews the main taste compounds in meat, factors influencing their concentrations, and the identification and measurement of taste‐active compounds, as well as summarizing the mechanisms of taste sensing and perception. Finally, the future of scientific taste component evaluation is discussed. This review provides a theoretical basis for research on meat taste and an important reference for the development of the meat industry.