The BMC is worried about us getting headaches and cancers.
They want to be sure, that if we do get them, it at least won’t be because they didn’t manage our consumption of monosodium glutamate or MSG, which is better known in India by Ajinomoto, the name of a brand that sells it here. Two weeks ago they announced that by Monday, September 15, they plan to decide whether to ban MSG in our food, to regulate it, or not interfere with it at all.
There hasn’t been a study, and no data is available yet, but experts still feel qualified to say that there could be as much as 5,000 milligrams of MSG in a plate of chicken Manchurian made at a street food stall. If they do decide to regulate it, “there will be routine inspections to find out whether the guidelines are being flouted”.
The same news report states that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers MSG safe as per the Food Safety Standards Act 2006, and quotes joint commissioner Suresh Annapure, who says there is no restriction to its consumption under the Act and that they “cannot take any action against food vendors who use it”.
Glutamate is the salt of glutamic acid, which in turn is a naturally occurring amino acid and a building block of protein. Monosodium glutamate or MSG is a glutamate stabilised with ordinary salt and water. The proportion of sodium in MSG, 12 per cent, is far less than the proportion of sodium in common table salt, 39 per cent. At first, the idea of 5,000 milligrams of monosodium glutamate in a single dish – the amount of MSG the unnamed experts claim is in a plate of chicken Manchurian – sounds horrifying. But it doesn’t when you realise that 5,000 milligrams is only 5 grams, which is an eighth of the 40 grams or 40,000 milligrams of glutamate that our body produces on average every day.
It is also naturally present in most foods such as tomato, cheese, meat, mushrooms, peas, and milk, and is responsible for the rich, savoury flavour many of us love and some of us know as umami. One cup of tomato juice contains about one gram of glutamate. Human breast milk contains ten times more glutamate than cow’s milk. Most of us consume a lot more MSG in our everyday food, up to 15 grams, than we do as an additive.
All MSG is naturally derived. Professor Kikunae Ikeda, who invented it in 1908, extracted it from kombu after realising that the seaweed’s naturally occurring glutamic acid was the secret to umami-rich deliciousness in a broth made by his wife. Today it is made by the fermentation of carbohydrate-rich vegetables (corn, beets, wheat), using a method that is not very different from the production of vinegar or yoghurt.
Professor Lloyd Jackson Filer Jr, a doctor and researcher, stated in his paper ‘A Report of the Proceedings of an MSG Workshop Held August 1991’, that the body cannot distinguish between glutamates that come from 100 per cent tomato paste, for example, or from a sprinkle of Ajinomoto in our stir fry. It processes both in the same way. Glutamic acid is present in every tissue in our body. It exists in our brain and plays an important role in memory and learning. What has not yet been definitively proved is that monosodium glutamate is harmful for us. According to this report in the The Smithsonian magazine, the United Nations, the American FDA, and governments of various countries, including those of Australia, Britain and Japan, have deemed it safe.
None of the claims made about MSG being unsafe are scientifically supported. One study found MSG to cause some temporary unpleasant effects (headaches, flushing, numbness and tingling) in a few sensitive people if they consumed large quantities of it on an empty stomach. In recent years, chefs, food scientists, and food writers have defended MSG. Food science writer Harold McGee has debunked the myth of the Chinese Restaurant Syndrome. American chef David Chang says that MSG’s vilification is based on myth and not fact. In his book It Must’ve Been Something I Ate, venerated food writer Jeffrey Steingarten asks, “If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn’t everyone in China have a headache?” The New York Times has also tried to provide some clarity.
One thing is certain: MSG makes food much more delicious, so it may make people want to eat more. Which is why it is used in many processed and packaged foods in India. It’s in our packets of soup, sauces, stock cubes, cured meats, and chips. The websites of Hindustan Unilever Limited and Nestle India have pages explaining that MSG has not been proven to be harmful to humans. On packaged food, it’s usually listed by other names: flavour enhancer, E621, hydrolysed vegetable protein and soy protein isolate. Unsurprisingly though, the BMC is not as concerned about multinational food brands as it is about local restaurants.
“I don’t think they will be able to implement the ban,” says Aniruddha Bandekar, head chef at Tilt All Day. “It’s a widely used product. The ban will take years. Chain restaurants use it, fine dining restaurants use it. You can use it for Indian food as well, because it enhances the taste of anything. Soya sauce is equally harmful because of the high sodium content. People have a mental block against, it’s a mindset.”
Most of the Chinese food we get in India is very high in salt, oil and cornstarch – an excess of any of these would make any of us uncomfortable. Indeed, some people are sensitive to MSG, but that percentage has been found to be minuscule. There is no proof that MSG hurts us or causes loss of life, unlike many other things that deserve attention from the BMC including our pot-holed roads, shrinking open spaces, and poor garbage and sewage disposal. Banning MSG would be another misdirected move, much like the hygiene regulations of the Food Safety and Standards Act about which there is still no clarity.
Roshni Bajaj Sanghvi is a Mumbai-based food journalist, a contributing editor at Vogue magazine, a graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York City, and a restaurant reviewer for the Hindustan Times newspaper in Mumbai.
They want to be sure, that if we do get them, it at least won’t be because they didn’t manage our consumption of monosodium glutamate or MSG, which is better known in India by Ajinomoto, the name of a brand that sells it here. Two weeks ago they announced that by Monday, September 15, they plan to decide whether to ban MSG in our food, to regulate it, or not interfere with it at all.
There hasn’t been a study, and no data is available yet, but experts still feel qualified to say that there could be as much as 5,000 milligrams of MSG in a plate of chicken Manchurian made at a street food stall. If they do decide to regulate it, “there will be routine inspections to find out whether the guidelines are being flouted”.
The same news report states that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers MSG safe as per the Food Safety Standards Act 2006, and quotes joint commissioner Suresh Annapure, who says there is no restriction to its consumption under the Act and that they “cannot take any action against food vendors who use it”.
Glutamate is the salt of glutamic acid, which in turn is a naturally occurring amino acid and a building block of protein. Monosodium glutamate or MSG is a glutamate stabilised with ordinary salt and water. The proportion of sodium in MSG, 12 per cent, is far less than the proportion of sodium in common table salt, 39 per cent. At first, the idea of 5,000 milligrams of monosodium glutamate in a single dish – the amount of MSG the unnamed experts claim is in a plate of chicken Manchurian – sounds horrifying. But it doesn’t when you realise that 5,000 milligrams is only 5 grams, which is an eighth of the 40 grams or 40,000 milligrams of glutamate that our body produces on average every day.
It is also naturally present in most foods such as tomato, cheese, meat, mushrooms, peas, and milk, and is responsible for the rich, savoury flavour many of us love and some of us know as umami. One cup of tomato juice contains about one gram of glutamate. Human breast milk contains ten times more glutamate than cow’s milk. Most of us consume a lot more MSG in our everyday food, up to 15 grams, than we do as an additive.
All MSG is naturally derived. Professor Kikunae Ikeda, who invented it in 1908, extracted it from kombu after realising that the seaweed’s naturally occurring glutamic acid was the secret to umami-rich deliciousness in a broth made by his wife. Today it is made by the fermentation of carbohydrate-rich vegetables (corn, beets, wheat), using a method that is not very different from the production of vinegar or yoghurt.
Professor Lloyd Jackson Filer Jr, a doctor and researcher, stated in his paper ‘A Report of the Proceedings of an MSG Workshop Held August 1991’, that the body cannot distinguish between glutamates that come from 100 per cent tomato paste, for example, or from a sprinkle of Ajinomoto in our stir fry. It processes both in the same way. Glutamic acid is present in every tissue in our body. It exists in our brain and plays an important role in memory and learning. What has not yet been definitively proved is that monosodium glutamate is harmful for us. According to this report in the The Smithsonian magazine, the United Nations, the American FDA, and governments of various countries, including those of Australia, Britain and Japan, have deemed it safe.
None of the claims made about MSG being unsafe are scientifically supported. One study found MSG to cause some temporary unpleasant effects (headaches, flushing, numbness and tingling) in a few sensitive people if they consumed large quantities of it on an empty stomach. In recent years, chefs, food scientists, and food writers have defended MSG. Food science writer Harold McGee has debunked the myth of the Chinese Restaurant Syndrome. American chef David Chang says that MSG’s vilification is based on myth and not fact. In his book It Must’ve Been Something I Ate, venerated food writer Jeffrey Steingarten asks, “If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn’t everyone in China have a headache?” The New York Times has also tried to provide some clarity.
One thing is certain: MSG makes food much more delicious, so it may make people want to eat more. Which is why it is used in many processed and packaged foods in India. It’s in our packets of soup, sauces, stock cubes, cured meats, and chips. The websites of Hindustan Unilever Limited and Nestle India have pages explaining that MSG has not been proven to be harmful to humans. On packaged food, it’s usually listed by other names: flavour enhancer, E621, hydrolysed vegetable protein and soy protein isolate. Unsurprisingly though, the BMC is not as concerned about multinational food brands as it is about local restaurants.
“I don’t think they will be able to implement the ban,” says Aniruddha Bandekar, head chef at Tilt All Day. “It’s a widely used product. The ban will take years. Chain restaurants use it, fine dining restaurants use it. You can use it for Indian food as well, because it enhances the taste of anything. Soya sauce is equally harmful because of the high sodium content. People have a mental block against, it’s a mindset.”
Most of the Chinese food we get in India is very high in salt, oil and cornstarch – an excess of any of these would make any of us uncomfortable. Indeed, some people are sensitive to MSG, but that percentage has been found to be minuscule. There is no proof that MSG hurts us or causes loss of life, unlike many other things that deserve attention from the BMC including our pot-holed roads, shrinking open spaces, and poor garbage and sewage disposal. Banning MSG would be another misdirected move, much like the hygiene regulations of the Food Safety and Standards Act about which there is still no clarity.
Roshni Bajaj Sanghvi is a Mumbai-based food journalist, a contributing editor at Vogue magazine, a graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York City, and a restaurant reviewer for the Hindustan Times newspaper in Mumbai.
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