Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, one of the crucial frequent amino acids in nature. It’s a white, crystalline powder that’s soluble in water. MSG is used as a taste enhancer in quite a lot of meals, together with soups, sauces, gravies, and snacks. Additionally it is utilized in some processed meals, reminiscent of canned tuna and frozen dinners.
MSG has been utilized in Chinese language cooking for hundreds of years. It was first remoted from seaweed in 1908 by a Japanese chemist named Kikunae Ikeda. Ikeda named the compound “” (Aji-no-moto), which implies “essence of style” in Japanese. MSG is now produced commercially utilizing a fermentation course of that entails the micro organism Corynebacterium glutamicum.