Monosodium glutamate Totally Explained

Everything about Monosodium Glutamate totally explained

|Section2= |Section3= }}
Monosodium glutamate (commonly known as MSG) is a sodium salt of glutamic acid, a non-essential amino acid. It is used as a food additive and is commonly marketed as a "flavour enhancer". Alternative names include:

sodium glutamate, flavour enhancer 621
2-aminoglutaric acid
2-aminopentanedioic acid
MSG
E number: E621
HS code: 29224220 Trade names include Ajinomoto, Vetsin, or Accent.

Although traditional Asian cuisine uses flavour-enhancing ingredients which contain high concentrations of MSG, it wasn't isolated until 1907. MSG was subsequently patented by the Japanese Ajinomoto Corporation in 1909. In its pure form, it appears as a white crystalline powder; when dissolved in water (or saliva) it rapidly dissociates into sodium cations and glutamate anions (glutamate is the anionic form of glutamic acid, a naturally occurring amino acid).

Chemical properties

Under standard conditions for temperature and pressure, MSG is stable, but it reacts with strong oxidizing agents. Two chiral enantiomers exist for monosodium glutamate, but only the naturally occurring L-glutamate form is used as a flavour enhancer.

Commercialisation

The Ajinomoto company was formed to manufacture and market MSG in Japan; the name 'Ajinomoto' means "essence of taste". It was introduced to the United States in 1947 as Ac'cent flavor enhancer.
Modern commercial MSG is produced by fermentation of starch, sugar beets, sugar cane, or molasses. About 1.5 million metric tons were sold in 2001, with 4% annual growth expected. MSG is used commercially as a flavour enhancer. Although once stereotypically associated with foods in Chinese restaurants, it's now found in many common food items, particularly processed foods. Examples include:

Canned soups.

Pre-prepared stocks often known as stock cubes.

Condiments such as barbecue sauce.

Frozen dinners.

Frozen seafood.

Common snack foods such as flavored potato chips and flavored tortilla chips.

Most fast food.

Instant meals such as the seasoning mixtures for instant noodles. Only the L-glutamate enantiomer has flavour-enhancing properties. Manufactured MSG contains over 99.6% of the naturally predominant L-glutamate form, which is a higher proportion of L-glutamate than found in the free glutamate ions of naturally occurring foods. Fermented products like soy sauce, steak sauce, and Worcestershire sauce have comparable levels of glutamate as foods with added MSG. However, glutamate in these brewed products may be composed 5% or more of the D-enantiomer.
In 1993, FDA proposed adding the phrase "(contains glutamate)" to the common or usual names of certain protein hydrolysates that contain substantial amounts of glutamate. For example, if the proposal were adopted, hydrolyzed soy protein would have to be declared on food labels as "hydrolyzed soy protein (contains glutamate)."
In 1994, FDA received a citizen's petition requesting changes in labeling requirements for foods that contain MSG or related substances. The petition asks for mandatory listing of MSG as an ingredient on labels of manufactured and processed foods that contain manufactured free glutamic acid. It further asks that the amount of free glutamic acid or MSG in such products be stated on the label, along with a warning that MSG may be harmful to certain groups of people (in much the same way products with aspartame have a warning for phenylketonurics). FDA hasn't yet taken action on the petition.

Europe

MSG has the E number E621.

Australia and New Zealand

Standard 1.2.4 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code requires the presence of MSG as a food additive to be labeled. The label must bear the food additive class name (eg. flavour enhancer), followed by either the name of the food additive (eg MSG) or its International Numbering System (INS) number (eg 621).

Further Information

Get more info on 'Monosodium Glutamate'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://monosodium_glutamate.totallyexplained.com">Monosodium glutamate Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.