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What Is Monosodium Glutamate Used For?

MSG, also known as monosodium glutamate or sodium glutamate is a sodium salt of the amino glutamic acid. Glutamates are flavor-enhancing compounds, which provide a savory taste to food. MSG, due to its crystalline glutamic acid salt form, is easy to use as an additive and has a fast solubility rate, which optimizes it for use as a flavor enhancer. Glutamic acid stimulates glutamate receptors located in the taste buds of the mouth, inducing a flavor called umami (savory or meaty).

  1. Manufacture

    • MSG naturally occurs in fermented and aged products like cheese, soy sauce, bean curd and grape juice. Today, most MSG is manufactured through the fermentation of carbohydrates (often sugars), and it is added to a wide variety of food products, including barbecue sauces, salad dressings, bouillon cubes, canned foods, soups, stocks, seasoning packets, dried foods, snack foods of all types and a majority of fast-food products.

    Considerations

    • In 1999, the journal Evolutionary Anthropology published an article by Katharine Milton that explored the dietary strategy of early human beings who sought out proteins for their higher nutritional value, as a way to "increase body size without losing mobility, agility and sociability." This strategy allowed humans to generate the energy required for cerebral expansion, a strategy that advanced humans beyond all other primates. MSG essentially tricks the body into believing a food enhanced with MSG contains proteins, which not only encourages people to eat more (from an evolutionary standpoint) but to value these doctored foods more highly.

    Concerns

    • Concerns about MSG have existed almost from the moment it was introduced in the United States in 1947 as the product Accent Flavor Enhancer. Many people described symptoms after eating foods known to be enhanced by MSG. Symptoms include chest pain, flushing, headache, numbness or burning in or around the mouth, sweating, and pressure or the sensation of facial swelling. In 196,9 an article in the journal Science collected these symptoms into a syndrome called Chinese Food Syndrome or monosodium glutamate symptom complex.

    Obesity

    • Studies of MSG have shown that lab rats who consume MSG are less able to control their appetite. These studies linked MSG to obesity. As recently as 2008, a research study at the University of North Carolina, working with researchers in China, revealed that people using MSG were significantly more likely to be overweight.

    Safety

    • MSG has been recognized as safe by the FDA since 1959. In 2003, the FDA required manufacturers to add monosodium glutamate to an ingredient list when MSG was added to the product. MSG is still identified as a safe product, although the FDA's Advisory Committee on Hypersensitivity to Food Constituents concluded, "that reactions of brief duration might occur in some people" (Meadows). Persons with gluten sensitivity such as those who have celiac disease, should consult their physicians about MSG.

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