Artificial flavoring mixtures which can impart a meaty flavor to foods. The mixtures contain an amino acid including glutamic acid, a nucleotide and critical amounts of succinic acid and a hydroxycarboxylic acid including lactic acid.

An object of the invention is to provide new, improved, artificially prepared flavoring mixtures that do not possess the undesired shades of taste and that are of a light color, and provides concentrated as well as ready-for-use foodstuffs and a process for the preparation thereof.

Using the product of this invention commercial meat extract may be partly or entirely replaced by a meatless composition, so that, beside giving an improved taste and a lighter color, a considerable cost saving can be realized. A partial replacement of commercial meat extract by an artificial flavoring mixture according to the invention may already lead to a shifting into the background of an undesirable shade of taste of the commercial meat extract in the final foodstuff. An additional advantage is that-- in contrast with the commercial meat extract--the compositions obtained according to the invention may have a constant quality and a constant price.

Various publications have been issued on the composition of commercial meat extract, e.g. by T. Wood and A. E. Bender in "The Biochemical Journal" 67, 366- 373 (1957), entitled "Analysis of tissue constituents (commercial ox-muscle extract)." In a later publication of A. E. Bender, T. Wood and J. A. Palgrave in "Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture" Dec. 9, 1958, pp 812-817, entitled "Analysis of tissue constituents. Extract of fresh ox-muscle," the composition of commercial meat extract was compared with an extract of fresh beef obtained by treating beef with ice water.