- According to the Japanese patent office, sodium glutamate was invented by Kikunae Ikeda in 1908 while he was working with understanding the flavor of a type of seaweed. The distinctive flavor has come to be called umami, a Japanese word variously translated as "tasty," "brothy," "meaty," etc. Although this flavor occurs in nature, the discovery of pure sodium glutamate identified why people experience it as a unique flavor. Umami taste receptors, those that detect MSG, have been discovered, and work continues to be done to understand the perception of umami.
- MSG is used principally in two different ways, as a spice and as a food additive. As a spice, it is mostly linked with Chinese food, though by no means all Chinese chefs, restaurants or recipes use MSG. As a food additive, MSG, which can be found under a number of other trade names, is found in a massive array of packaged foods, including foods made at restaurants with pre-packaged ingredients. It is one of the most common additives found in foods today. Glutamate, which is a non-essential amino acid (meaning that the body produces enough for its own purposes and extra need not be consumed), is found in the body as a neurotransmitter; chemically, MSG is glutamate in compound with salt.
- Aside from occurring naturally in a number of foods we associate with having a savory flavor--sharp cheese, tomatoes, and mushrooms among them--glutamic acid can be refined chemically as the result of fermentation processes of products like soybeans. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports that injections of glutamate have been found to damage nerve cells of lab animals, but that this method of introducing glutamate into a system does not cause the same effects as ingesting it.
- Public concern over the consumption of MSG was sparked by a phenomenon that came to be known as "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome," a collection of varying symptoms experienced by many after eating in Chinese restaurants (for more on the scare, see Resources section). Although many quickly associated this phenomenon with MSG, it has never been positively demonstrated that MSG was the root of the symptoms.
- The FDA has sponsored numerous studies into the safety of the consumption of MSG as a flavor enhancer, and the general consensus has always been that MSG is safe for almost all individuals. However, a 1995 joint report from the FDA and FASEB (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) concluded that some people who are MSG-intolerant may develop symptoms like burning or numbness, chest pain, and that MSG may aggravate asthma, which may in turn predispose people to MSG sensitivity. However, there is no evidence that MSG acts to damage nerve cells, as had once been suspected, in the same way that injections of glutamate do.
