Msg had me scratching my head so a good look at google and wiki revealed this,
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Monosodium glutamate, sodium glutamate, flavour enhancer 621, EU food additive code: E621, HS code: 29224220 (IUPAC name 2-aminopentanedioic acid. Also known as 2-aminoglutaric acid), commonly known as MSG, Ajinomoto, Vetsin, or accent, is a sodium salt of glutamic acid. MSG is a food additive, popularly marketed as a "flavour enhancer". Although traditional Asian cuisine uses flavour-enhancing ingredients which contain high concentrations of MSG, it was not isolated until 1907. MSG was subsequently patented by the Japanese Ajinomoto Corporation in 1909. In its pure form, it appears as a white crystalline powder; when dissolved in water (or saliva) it rapidly dissociates into sodium cations and glutamate anions (glutamate is the anionic form of glutamic acid, a naturally occurring amino acid). |
Message Edited... Persephone: Please learn how to use the Quote Tags. See our Constructive Posting Policy. |
Guilty as charged! I must confess that I still use MSG when cooking Chinese food, even though, I am aware that it was recently linked to causing cancer. Why? Well, my first excuse is, I do not use it very regularly; maybe once every two or three months. And my second excuse is, scientists are not always very accurate in their findings!
Rather off topic, but... First of all, scientists claimed that margarine was healthier for you since it has less cholesterol than butter. Now they are saying that margarine has the same amount of cholesterol as butter. So how can you believe anything that these scientists say? |
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my main question is how important is it to the food taste or quality, in other words, if you do not cook with it is there a drastic change? |