' A SURVEY OF THE DIETARY INTAKE OF MONO SODIUM GLUTAMATE AMONGST PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract

•!• Flavor enhancers are additives , added to supplement , enhance or modify the original taste and /or aroma of a food without imparting a characteristic taste or aroma of its own .

•!• There are about twenty flavor enhancers , the oldest common and most widely used in food is monosodium L-glutamate .

•!• Monosodium L-glutamate also called MSG , is a white crystalline powder used by the food . industry , restaurants and home cooks to enhance the flavor of meat , fish , vegetables and soups.

•!• Monosodium glutamate is the monosodium salt of glutamic acid . It was first produced in the orient from sea weed but now is mainly derived from the gluten of wheat , corn , soybean or sugar beets in a fennentation process .

•!• The capability of the salt to enhance food flavor was discovered by the Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda in 1908 .

•!• Glutamate is present naturally in many foods as well as in the human body , in either fonn bounded or in its free fonn , only the "L isomer" free from manifests a flavor enhancing .

•!• The use ofMSG is self-limiting as there is an optional limit 0.2- 0.8 percent by weight in food beyond which the palatability of food decreases . •!• Current world production is dose to 300,000 tons .

•!• The Chinese restaurant syndrome took its name from the MSG . Its symptoms include tightness around the face and chest , burning sensations in the upper torso and headache .