MSG, A Common Flavor Enhancer - Food Allergies

MSG, A Common Flavor Enhancer - Food Allergies:

In 1959, the Food and Drug Administration classified MSG as a "generally recognized as safe" food ingredient under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. But the use of MSG in food has remained controversial. In the 1980s, research showed that glutamate plays an important role in the normal functioning of the nervous system, raising questions about whether glutamate in food could affect the nervous system.

The FDA also received numerous reports of MSG-related adverse events, including headaches, palpitations, vomiting, and nausea. While these voluntary reports were useful for drawing attention to potential problems, they were unconfirmed by controlled testing.

Because of concerns about the adverse event reports, the FDA sponsored several safety assessments which all concluded that MSG is safe when consumed at levels typically used in cooking and food manufacturing. In 1986, FDA's Advisory Committee on Hypersensitivity to Food Constituents found that MSG was generally safe, but that short-term reactions may occur in some people. Other reports from the American Medical Association's Council on Scientific Affairs and the European Community's Scientific Committee for Foods reported similar findings.

Then in 1992, the FDA contracted with the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), an independent group of scientists, to complete the most comprehensive review of available scientific data on glutamate safety to date.

The 1995 FASEB report reaffirmed the safety of MSG when it is consumed at usual levels by the general population, and found no evidence of any connection between MSG and any serious long-term reactions. The report indicated that no evidence exists to suggest that dietary MSG or glutamate contributes to Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, or any other long-term or chronic diseases. There was also no evidence suggesting that dietary MSG or glutamate causes brain lesions or damage to nerve cells in humans.

But the report did identify short-term reactions known as MSG Symptom Complex in two groups of people. The first group includes people who may have a reaction after eating large doses of MSG, particularly on an empty stomach. A large dose would be three grams or more per meal. A typical serving of glutamate-treated food contains less than 0.5 grams of MSG. The second group includes people with severe and poorly controlled asthma.

MSG Symptom Complex can involve symptoms such as numbness, burning sensation, tingling, facial pressure or tightness, chest pain, headache, nausea, rapid heartbeat, drowsiness, and weakness. Asthmatics may experience these symptoms as well as difficulty in breathing. Additional studies in asthmatics under controlled conditions have not produced consistent results.

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