Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a white, crystalline substance used in the preparation and processing of many foods. Although MSG has a slight flavor of its own, its chief effect is to bring out the tastes of such foods as meats, vegetables, seafood, soups, sauces, and casseroles.
Monosodium glutamate forms when sodium is added to an amino acid called glutamic acid (see Amino acid ). Chemically, MSG is a sodium salt. However, it does not taste like table salt, which is sodium chloride, and it contains only one-third the sodium of table salt. Its taste is different from the four common categories of taste–salt, sour, sweet, and bitter. In 1908, Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda discovered MSG’s ability to improve the flavor of food.
Since the late 1960’s, some people have reported suffering various discomforts due to eating MSG. However, studies of people who say they have experienced these discomforts have failed to prove that MSG caused them. Experiments with animals have shown that force-feeding or injecting MSG can damage sections of the immature brain. But studies in which MSG is added to the normal diet of animals have revealed no damage.
Two agencies of the United Nations, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization, jointly reviewed the safety of MSG. In 1988, they concluded that MSG is not a health hazard. In 1990, the European Community’s Scientific Committee for Food reached the same conclusion. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration lists MSG as “generally recognized as safe.”
