Scientists Found Something in Mushrooms That Makes Salt Taste 70% Saltier

Tiny mushroom peptides could help food taste salty without adding more sodium.

In an old folktale, a legendary king asks his three daughters how much they love him. The eldest says she loves him like honey; the second says sugar. But the youngest gives a rather strange answer: she loves him like salt on meat.

Outraged, the king banishes her. Years later, at her wedding, she serves him a lavish feast prepared without salt. Instead, she seasons his food with honey and sugar. Even the saltcellar is filled with sugar. Only then does the king understand that without salt, even the finest meal can taste terrible.

The story captures something fundamental about the human appetite. We love salt. Our bodies need sodium to function, and our taste buds have evolved to recognize it. But our enthusiasm for salty food has become a serious public-health problem. Too much sodium raises blood pressure and increases the risk of heart disease and stroke. According to the World Health Organization, adults worldwide consume roughly 11 grams of salt a day, more than twice its recommended limit of 5 grams.

Now, scientists in China may have found an ingenious way around this dilemma. They’ve identified tiny molecules derived from an edible mushroom that can make salt taste up to 70% saltier, without adding any more sodium.

Finding Salternatives

The researchers started with Hypsizygus marmoreus, commonly called the beech mushroom, prized for its savory flavor. The idea wasn’t entirely new: earlier work on shiitake mushrooms had identified protein fragments that intensified saltiness. But which molecules in beech mushrooms might do the same?

First, the team treated mushroom proteins with enzymes that chopped them into peptides—short chains of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. One enzyme, trypsin, produced the most promising mixture. Using a highly sensitive analytical instrument, the researchers identified 6,092 different peptide sequences.

But testing each one would have taken an enormous amount of time.

So they let computers do most of the searching. Using AI and other screening tools, the researchers looked for peptides most likely to enhance saltiness, while filtering out those predicted to be unstable or potentially harmful. Eventually, they narrowed the list to just five promising candidates.

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The team synthesized those five molecules and enlisted 14 trained tasters to try saltwater solutions containing them. Three stood out. The most promising, a peptide called ASHGEGF, increased perceived saltiness by 70.59% compared with the salt solution alone. Two others, LDDGF and GDDWT, boosted it by 49.02% and 47.06%, respectively.

An electronic tongue, a device that analyzes liquids through electrical signals, also registered stronger responses in the solutions containing the peptides.

And the effect wasn’t just stronger. It lasted longer. In fitted curves of the tasters’ responses, the sensation lasted 105 seconds with ASHGEGF, compared with 75 seconds for saltwater alone.

Making Salt Tastier

So how can a molecule make salt taste stronger without adding any more of it?

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Computer simulations suggested that the peptides might interact with TMC4, a protein linked to salt perception. The models predicted that the peptides could bind to this protein, potentially influencing how we experience saltiness.

But those interactions were modeled, not observed in human taste cells, not observed directly. And there are other important limitations.

For one thing, 70% saltier does not mean 70% less salt. The researchers tested synthesized peptides in simple salt solutions, not soup, bread, or chips. They have not measured how much sodium could actually be removed from foods while preserving flavor. Nor have computational predictions established that these peptides are safe as commercial additives.

Other strategies already exist. Potassium-enriched salt substitutes have reduced strokes in a large clinical trial, although they are unsuitable for some people with impaired kidney function. Mushroom peptides might one day offer a different route: amplifying the saltiness we perceive rather than replacing sodium with another mineral.

For now, tossing extra mushrooms into dinner won’t reproduce the laboratory result. But if the effect holds up in real foods, these tiny molecules could help solve a surprisingly stubborn problem: keeping food delicious while cutting back on salt.

Perhaps the daughter in the old folktale was right about one thing. Food needs salt. The question is how much.

The study was published in the journal npj Science of Food.