MSG Truth
Be aware of the following ingredients, whether they appear on a restaurant menu, a famous chain restaurant ingredient webpage or a label on a package you buy in an American supermarket.
Food Ingredients that contain high amounts of free glutamate:
Accent® - this is nearly pure MSG
Ajinomoto® - this is nearly pure MSG
Autolyzed yeast - which contains high amounts of free
glutamate - it is used in many fast food items but also at major chain restaurants
Canned soup - including canned chicken broth
Carageenan
Casein – It is processed milk protein and is high in free glutamate.
Chicken – Fried Fast food chicken, fried fast food chicken patties like a certain chain serves with waffle fries, even rotisserie chicken from the supermarket if it has any other additives besides salt.
Cold Cuts - even the "low sodium" varieties with the "heart healthy" logos.
Beet Extract is used as a coloring, but MSG is manufactured from beets and the extract may contain free glutamic acid
Boullion - any kind. The process of making it frees glutamate. Make your own soup and stock from scratch.
Ceasar Salad - It usually has Parmesan cheese in the recipe.
Cheese puffs - anything that glows in the dark is processed too much. It will contain a lot of free glutamate especially if it used to be cheese.
Dough conditioners
Fish Sauce from decomposed fish protein is very high in free glutamate.
Fish Extract
Flavored snack chips - like a certain famous one flavored with "Nacho" cheese, or ones that come stacked in a can.
Flavored Potato Chips
French Fries - Fast food. They hydrolyze wheat and dairy proteins that contain glutamate and then soak their fries in that before they ship them to the fast food chain stores where they are cooked again. Why? Free glutamate they don't have to label as MSG.
Fried Chicken - from a certain famous Kentucky chain. Nearly all the foods at this particular restaurant contain MSG - even the salads.
Gelcaps used for vitamins - contain free glutamic acid in the gelatin - empty them when you can.
Gravy – restaurant, canned, dry mixes, or bottled
Glutamic Acid
Glutamine – supplement amino acid which can be converted directly to glutamate
Hot Dogs - unless they only contain fresh meat and salt and recognizable spices, or you made them yourself.
Hydrolyzed Gelatin - also found in vaccines - is 10% free glutamate by weight
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (found in many processed Canned Tuna - read labels, some are safer with only salt and olive oil
Kombu extract - very high in free glutamate
Liquid Aminos - no matter where they came from. If they are called aminos, they are used as a flavor enhancer, which means the glutamate has been freed. It will behave exactly like MSG.
Low Fat Milk - A lot of low fat milk is reconstituted with non fat dry milk powder - a processed food that contains a lot of free glutamate due to processing. They add the powder back to bring up the protein content. Choose whole milk instead.
Malted Barley – malting releases 5 times more free glutamate
Malted Barley Flour - found in all-purpose flours
Meat Extract
Monopotassium glutamate
Mushrooms - naturally high in free glutamate but fresh
mushrooms are much lower in glutamate than processed foods - use sparingly.
Mushroom Soup - High in free glutamate. Moist heat can free glutamate - even in your own kitchen.
Natural Flavors - According to the FDA, "natural flavor" can contain processed hydrolyzed proteins which often contain up to 20% free glutamic acid - the active part of MSG by weight
Noodles - instant with premixed spice packs
Non-fat dry milk - found in breads
"Nutritional" Yeast - is made from highly processed, killed yeast. It is very high in free glutamate. Unfortunately, this is used a lot by low carb/ketogenic dieters lately. It is just like MSG.
Nuts – Flavored varieties
Over-ripe tomatoes - naturally high in free glutamate - Use sparingly. Cook Quickly. Tomato sauce does not need to cook all day. A little baking soda cuts the acid immediately.
Parmesan Cheese - naturally high in free glutamate. It is aged a long time. Aging naturally frees more amino acids.
The fresher the cheese, the less processed it is - the less free glutamate will be there.
Pre-Seasoned Flours - commercial brands
Powdered cheese
Powdered dry food mixes that are salty
Processed cheese spread
Protein drink powders for body builders
Ranch Dressing bottled and dry mixes often seen in veggie dip
Salad Dressings. Bottled and dried mixes often have MSG added
Sausages - read labels - most commercial sausages contain MSG, most fast food breakfast items with sausage in them have MSG added in some form
Seaweed, dried, in a salad, in a soup, anywhere - seaweed is what MSG was first isolated from. If you are MSG sensitive - you need to avoid seaweed and foods derived from it. If you like sushi like I do, choose sashimi instead.
Sodium Caseinate - Casein is processed protein from milk - and is high in free glutamate
Soup Mix - Instant dried - often used in veggie platter dips
Soups – in restaurants they may come from a can
Soy Sauce - naturally contains 1% free glutamate by weight. cheaper version salso contain added hydrolyzed wheat protein, which is the food MSG was first isolated from
Soy Protein Isolate
Tangle extract (seaweed extract) - Seaweed is what MSG was first isolated from.
Textured protein - Unfortunately, this is popular with a lot of vegans right now. Food Manufacturers make "fake" meat with this. The proteins used are high in glutamate.
Tomato Soup - High in free glutamate. Moist heat can free glutamate - even in your own kitchen.
Ultra-Pasteurized Cream - heated to very high temperatures. Heating also desroys any natural thickening property of cream. In order to put that back, manufacturers put MSG containing additives and thickeners like carageenan into teh cream to make it "whip" again.
Ultra-Pasteurized Milk - heated to very high temperatures, more glutamate is freed. I use pasteurized whole milk instead. The "Ultra" is a misleading short cut that ruins the milk even though it extends the shelf life.
Umami pastes - even if they say they are an MSG substitute. They are high in free glutamate which is functionally the same thing.
Worcestershire Sauce
Yeast spreads popular in the UK and Australia
Yeast Extract
Note: Cosmetics and shampoos - read labels - now contain hydrolyzed proteins or glutamic acid.
In 1982 a patent was granted to add free glutamate to vaccines. The CDC now lists MSG as a vaccine ingredient.
The list above describes the items MSG is found in in the US.
In other countries MSG is called the following names:
In Japan: 味の素 or Ajinomoto
In China : wie jing
In Philipines: vetsin
Thailand: phong churot
Germany: natriumglutaminat
Europe: E621 but also avoid e620-625 as they also contain glutamate
MSG is now in sausages called "boerewors" and other meats in South Africa. MSG is now found in fast foods in India, Brazil, and Viet Nam.
MSG is difficult to avoid no matter where on the planet you go. That is why I don't refer to an MSG reaction by blaming one particular type of cuisine, restaurant, or even country. Everyone is using it now, everywere, which is a problem because people who are sensitive to MSG need to be careful if they go to the supermarket or travel anywhere in the world.
What Foods Should I Avoid?
What Foods Should I Avoid?
Avoid Umami anything. Remember, Umami means MSG. If a chef, or restaurant, or a fast food chain, or a food blogger uses the word umami to impress you, it is not a new word. It was the word used to describe MSG in 1908 when the processed food world discovered they could chemically coax it from abused wheat protein and seaweed and add it to canned foods and dry soup mix.
What Fast Food Items Should I avoid?
I used to list exact Fast Food menu items with MSG in them, but now it is difficult to keep up. Most fast food chains now have websites with ingredient lists. I recommend going to them to see what exactly is in their foods. You will be surprised. There is a lot of processed junk in even the simplest of menu items. And foods like pasta sauce from chains that pretend to be Italian, tend to have autolyzed yeast in them now. My Italian grandma never put that in her sauce, I assure you.
I used to list exact Fast Food menu items with MSG in them, but now it is difficult to keep up. Most fast food chains now have websites with ingredient lists. I recommend going to them to see what exactly is in their foods. You will be surprised. There is a lot of processed junk in even the simplest of menu items. And foods like pasta sauce from chains that pretend to be Italian, tend to have autolyzed yeast in them now. My Italian grandma never put that in her sauce, I assure you.
Many of these chains use the same ingredients so my list was becoming redundant.
Rules of thumb for avoiding MSG:
1. The more salty a processed food is, the more likely it is to contain MSG or free glutamate. It makes a food taste more "meaty" even if their is very little meat there. Vegan meat substitutes based on mushrooms are a common offender.
2. The more processed a food is, the more likely it is to contain MSG or free glutamate: powdered stuff that used to be food is likely to have added MSG because the original flavor has been degraded, AND processing concentrates and frees glutamate already bound and present.
3. The more ingredients in a packaged food, the more likely MSG is present. Read labels carefully . Time is money. If a food has more than five ingredients and you don't have half an hour to read one ingredient label - put it back on the shelf - you'll be better off.
4. Do not trust something simply because it is in a health food store and the label states it is natural or even organic. The US allows "natural flavors" to include protein hydrolysates which can contain up to 20% MSG by weight. A distinction without a difference.
Updated by Carol Hoernlein 12/31/18