*See note at bottom of this page.
My objective in writing this article is to present the facts about Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) and let you decide if its as benign as the recent foodie hype over at the New York Times (“China’s True Dash of Flavor†by Fuchsia Dunlop) would have you believe.
Introduction
MSG was discovered (1908) by Kikunae Ikeda (Tokyo Imperial University) when he was trying to pin down the chemistry behind the flavor later termed “umami“, a Japanese word that is the “IT” word amongst name-dropping with-it foodies today. He isolated this flavor from seaweed broth and called it Monosodium Glutamate. With the help of the Ajinomoto Corp of Japan, Ikeda patented MSG in 1909 and it was made commercially available for the first time. Thus, MSG has been around and in commercial use for almost 100 years. MSG was desirable because it boosted the sensation of “savory” flavors in food, especially important if you are involved with vegetarian cuisines or if you are preparing low-protein content foods for mass marketing.
Technorati Tags: New York Times, MSG, Kikunae, Ikeda, Tokyo Imperial University, chemistry, flavor, Monosodium Glutamate, Ajinomoto, patent, savory, food, mass marketing
