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Monosodium Glutamate: Discovered By Kikunae Ikeda

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Discovered by a Japanese chemist professor named Kikunae Ikeda in 1908, MSG is short for monosodium glutamate, which is a white, odourless free flowing crystal and is the sodium salt of glutamic acid. Its chemical properties are that it is soluble in water, doesn’t decompose and its functional groups are amines, ketones and aldehydes. Ikeda, a professor at the Imperial University of Tokyo discovered that humans can come across a fifth taste which is called umami, derived from the word umai, meaning delicious in Japanese. Everybody knows to stay far away from MSG, however they tend to not know why. As consumers we want to learn and know more about the things we consume, however somethings just tend to stay as unknown. Monosodium glutamate …show more content…

This white substance resembles salt or sugar and is considered to being tasteless. One of the benefits of adding MSG into foods is that it adds that extra burst of flavor in your mouth. This substance is known to bring out he best in savoury dishes, as it is added to processes processed foods, Chinese cuisine and spices. Another benefit of this substance is that it can replace sodium seasonings in most foods as MSG has one third amount of sodium than table salt itself.
Even though this substance is praised among fast food restaurants and cuisines, monosodium Glutamate is known to inspire controversy among those who agree this substance is considered harmful. It all started in 1968 in the letter to the New England of medicine, that was written by a scientist that described the effects he had encountered after eating Chinese food, calling it the Chinese Restaurant Syndrome, where he felt a numbness at the back of his neck, weakness, nausea, and many other symptoms after eating Chinese food. The journal suggested that MSG was certainly the problem, as it proved that it had affected many, however not

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