Tag: GRAS

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Snake in the GRAS

When you hear that the FDA considers monosodium glutamate GRAS – or, generally recognized as safe – what does that mean? It’s certainly one of the “selling points” that industry likes to toss around a lot as evidence that monosodium glutamate is harmless.

But that GRAS designation is inherently deceiving.

Sixty-two years ago, following passage of the Food Additives Amendment of 1958, the FDA grandfathered monosodium glutamate into a category of additives called GRAS. There was no testing done or even reviewed by the FDA to determine if monosodium glutamate was indeed safe. The GRAS classification was solely based on monosodium glutamate having been in use without objection prior to 1958. The actual safety of pre-1958 monosodium glutamate was not then, and never has been, established.

But to make using a GRAS label for monosodium glutamate even more farfetched, is the fact that the monosodium glutamate in use in the U.S. today is not even the same as the monosodium glutamate that was grandfathered as GRAS in 1958. From 1920 until 1956, the process underlying production of glutamic acid and monosodium glutamate in Japan had been one of extraction, a slow and costly method (1). Then, around 1956, Ajinomoto Co., Inc. succeeded in producing glutamic acid and monosodium glutamate using genetically modified bacteria to secrete the glutamic acid used in monosodium glutamate through their cell walls, and cost saving, large-scale production of glutamic acid and monosodium glutamate through fermentation began (2,3).

Approximately ten years later, the first published report of an adverse reaction to monosodium glutamate appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine (4), and a study demonstrating that monosodium glutamate was excitotoxic, causing brain damage, endocrine disorders and behavior disorders, was published in the journal Science in 1969 (5). Of interest to note is the fact that by the time ten years had gone by, grocery shelves were overflowing with processed foods loaded with monosodium glutamate, hydrolyzed protein products, autolyzed yeasts and lots of other ingredients that contained the same toxic free glutamic acid found in monosodium glutamate.

REFERENCES

  1. Van Nostrand’s Scientific Encyclopedia. 6th ed. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1983:1211-2.
  2. Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. 3rd ed. Vol 2. New York: Wiley, 1978:410-21.
  3. Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. 4th ed. New York: Wiley, 1992:571-9.
  4. Kwok RHM. The Chinese restaurant syndrome. Letter to the editor. N Engl J Med. 1968;278(14):796.
  5. Olney JW. Brain lesions, obesity, and other disturbances in mice treated with monosodium glutamate. Science. 1969;164:719-721.
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FDA violates its own rules in calling MSG ‘safe’

BY FDA REGULATIONS: According to Sections 201(s) and 409 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and FDA regulations 21 CFR 170.3 and 21 CFR 170.30, the use of a food substance may be GRAS (generally recognized as safe) either through scientific procedures or, for a substance used in food before 1958, through experience based on common use in food.

In short, to be designated FDA GRAS an ingredient must be tested for safety using scientific procedures (with the same evidence as required for food additive approval), unless it is known to be safe through common use in food prior to January 1958.

FACT: Neither the monosodium glutamate in use prior to 1957 (MSG-1) nor the monosodium glutamate in use today (MSG-2) has ever been tested for safety.

FACT: The monosodium glutamate in use today (MSG-2) is not the same monosodium glutamate that was grandfathered GRAS in 1958 (MSG-1), yet the FDA seems not to have noticed.

FACT: Glutamic acid is an excitotoxic amino acid. When ingested in controlled quantities, glutamic acid is essential to normal function of the body. But when ingested in excess, it causes brain damage, leading to a variety of abnormalities. Prior to 1957, when MSG-1 was the source of monosodium glutamate, there was not enough manufactured free glutamate added to food to cause glutamate to become excitotoxic. That changed with the introduction of MSG-2.

FACT: MSG-2, the monosodium glutamate in use today, could not have been grandfathered GRAS in 1958 because it didn’t exist.

CONCLUSION: To be designated FDA GRAS, an ingredient has to be tested for safety using scientific procedures – unless it was known to be safe through experience based on common use in food prior to January 1958. MSG-2, the monosodium glutamate in use today was neither.

For more details, and to read the FDA rules as they appear in the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations go here.

Adrienne Samuels, Ph.D.

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Who is up to the challenge?

Wanted. One savvy person to orchestrate the removal of monosodium glutamate from the FDA’s GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list.

Article Nine of the Bill of Rights refers to the rights retained by the people — and that it is the right of the people to know everything going on in the government.  It is therefore unlawful for the FDA to fail to respond to a Freedom of Information request for copies of data used in granting GRAS status to free glutamic acid used in food.

It seems reasonable to conclude that in order to fill that request, the FDA would have to admit that 1) there are no data that demonstrate that free glutamate can be safely used in food, and 2) the only studies that claim to have demonstrated the safety of free glutamate have been double-blind studies that used excitotoxic aspartic acid (in aspartame) in placebos.

Both aspartic acid (found in aspartame) and glutamic acid (found in MSG) cause brain damage and identical adverse reactions.

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Waiting on the FDA, an exercise in futility

Are you still waiting for the FDA to remove MSG and MfG — manufactured free glutamate — from the FDA’s GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list?  So are we.  But it won’t happen.  The FDA is on record as not doing anything that the Glutes don’t want them to do.  So the chances that the FDA will ever respond to Citizen Petition FDA-2021-P-0035 are next to none.

There is a great deal of evidence that attests to the fact that MSG and its MfG component cause brain damage as well as adverse reactions like heart irregularities, asthma, and seizures.  And there is absolutely no evidence that either MSG or MfG is harmless.

It’s all there for you to read on the pages of The Truth In Labeling Campaign Website (www.truthinlabeling.org).  But to save you time here are a number of resources for easy access.

  • Review of animal studies done in the 1970s that have demonstrated the toxicity of MSG and MfG: evidence that the glutamate in MSG and other flavor enhancers and protein substitutes becomes excitotoxic – brain damaging – when present in amounts that exceed what a healthy subject needs for normal body function: https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/seven_lines/Seven_Lines_Lines2.pdf
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The most effective weapon

Probably the most effective weapon in the arsenal of glutamate industry claims that monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a “safe” food additive is the often-repeated statement that “FDA considers the addition of MSG to foods to be ‘generally recognized as safe’ (GRAS).”

According to The Glutamate Association:

Over the years, there have been numerous reports or complaints from people claiming they had side effects from foods that have MSG. Those include stomach upset, heart palpitations or headaches. In the 60s and 70s, some used the derogatory term “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” because they believed that people experienced these side effects after eating Chinese food. 

However, researchers have done numerous studies, and there’s been no concrete evidence that MSG causes these ill effects unless consumed in large quantities — 3 grams or more. Typically, an average food serving has 0.5 grams or less of MSG. 

Because of this research, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classified MSG as GRAS or “generally recognized as safe.”

The flaw in industry’s argument lies in the fact that there actually is no research that demonstrates that MSG is “safe.”

There are several dozen studies that demonstrate that MSG, which contains an excitotoxic – brain damaging – amino acid, kills brain cells in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus causing gross obesity, infertility, behavior disorders and more.

There are a handful of human studies and a myriad of reports that MSG causes migraine headache, asthma, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, nausea, vomiting, seizures and more. 

There are a dozen or so badly flawed double-blind studies wherein, among other irregularities, the placebo used was not of some inert material, but triggered reactions identical to those caused by MSG. 

Moreover, by the FDA’s own admission, there are no studies that demonstrate the safety of MSG.  Or, to say it more precisely, the FDA has not identified even one study that they have used to back their claim that MSG is “safe.”

According to law, to be designated FDA GRAS (generally recognized as safe), an ingredient must be tested for safety using scientific procedures (with the same evidence as required for food additive approval), unless it is known to be safe through common use in food prior to January 1958.

Since the MSG in use today only entered the market in 1957, no claim can be made that it was known to be safe through common use in food prior to January 1958.  That leaves the requirement that ingredient must be tested for safety using scientific procedures.  A requirement that has not been met.

How do we know? We asked the FDA to point to the studies they used in making the claim that MSG is GRAS.  And guess what?  They haven’t responded with a single study. 

We also asked the FDA to removed MSG and its manufactured free glutamate toxic component (MfG) from the GRAS “list.”  And guess what?  They haven’t responded to that either.

So how does the FDA get away with declaring that MSG is GRAS when doing so puts them in violation of the law?  Who is the glutamate industry operative at the FDA in charge of making it happen?

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FDA violates its own rules in calling MSG ‘safe’

BY FDA REGULATIONS: According to Sections 201(s) and 409 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and FDA regulations 21 CFR 170.3 and 21 CFR 170.30, the use of a food substance may be GRAS (generally recognized as safe) either through scientific procedures or, for a substance used in food before 1958, through experience based on common use in food.

In short, to be designated FDA GRAS an ingredient must be tested for safety using scientific procedures (with the same evidence as required for food additive approval), unless it is known to be safe through common use in food prior to January 1958.

FACT: Neither the monosodium glutamate in use prior to 1957 (MSG-1) nor the monosodium glutamate in use today (MSG-2) has ever been tested for safety.

FACT: The monosodium glutamate in use today (MSG-2) is not the same monosodium glutamate that was grandfathered GRAS in 1958 (MSG-1), yet the FDA seems not to have noticed.

FACT: Glutamic acid is an excitotoxic amino acid. When ingested in controlled quantities, glutamic acid is essential to normal function of the body. But when ingested in excess, it causes brain damage, leading to a variety of abnormalities. Prior to 1957, when MSG-1 was the source of monosodium glutamate, there was not enough manufactured free glutamate added to food to cause glutamate to become excitotoxic. That changed with the introduction of MSG-2.

FACT: MSG-2, the monosodium glutamate in use today, could not have been grandfathered GRAS in 1958 because it didn’t exist.

CONCLUSION: To be designated FDA GRAS, an ingredient has to be tested for safety using scientific procedures – unless it was known to be safe through experience based on common use in food prior to January 1958. MSG-2, the monosodium glutamate in use today was neither.

For more details, and to read the FDA rules as they appear in the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations go here.

Adrienne Samuels, Ph.D.

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Industry’s FDA

MSG is a flavor-enhancing additive used in so many processed foods you probably couldn’t count them all.

No doubt you’ve read that it is perfectly “safe,” only causing transient adverse reactions in a small set of people sensitive to it.

The Truth in Labeling Campaign, independent scientists and journalists (not on the glutamate payroll) will tell you a different story, how MSG and other sources of free glutamate can trigger adverse reactions ranging from simple skin rash to migraine headache, heart irregularities, seizures and anaphylactic shock. 

However, no one – even those in the glutamate industry — can say that ingestion of MSG doesn’t cause adverse reactions. Despite that, there is no restriction imposed by the FDA on use of either MSG or its toxic free glutamic acid component in foods or beverages.

But here’s the really interesting part — food scientists and neuroscientists are turning out study after study exploring the “protective effects” of various chemicals, dietary supplements and even foods to shield against monosodium glutamate-induced abnormalities. On January 30, 2022, there were 377 such studies listed by the National Library of Medicine. And all this research is going on while the FDA, along with those who profit from the manufacture and sale of MSG, claim that MSG is totally safe for use in food.

The FDA has been representing the interests of the glutamate industry since 1968 if not before. The Truth in Labeling Campaign has told that story many times. See: https://www.truthinlabeling.org/fda.html and, https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/manuscript2.pdf

There are laws that specify just what the FDA must do to proclaim an ingredient GRAS (generally recognized as safe), which is how it lists MSG.  And in claiming that monosodium glutamate is GRAS, the FDA violates its own rules.

That little fact was revealed in a citizen petition filed by TLC co-founder Adrienne Samuels in January of 2021, requesting that monosodium glutamate and its toxic component have its GRAS status withdrawn. The FDA has yet to respond.

Adrienne also filed two other petitions related to MSG last year. Check out this page link to learn the details of them all. Even better, click on the link there that says “vote,” and leave your own comment at the FDA docket.

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Do they really think they can keep the FDA from removing the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status from MSG and the other products that contain excitotoxic free glutamic acid?

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, on March 18 of this year, I submitted a Citizen Petition to the FDA requesting that the FDA Commissioner remove misleading and incorrect information presently displayed on the FDA website in a post titled “Questions and Answers on Monosodium Glutamate” (Q&A), and replace it with accurate information about monosodium glutamate (MSG) toxicity, which I supplied. 

On August 16, 2021, The Glutamate Association (TGA) and the International Hydrolyzed Protein Council (IHPC) submitted comments to Citizen Petition Docket No FDA-2021-P-0301, challenging my Petition.  They maintain that the Q&A accurately reflects the data and information on MSG, and that my proposed changes should be rejected.

Completely unrelated to the filing of my Citizen Petition, Kumar et al. published results of a study that looked at the relationship of dietary glutamic acid to obesity and depressive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia, and on October 24, 2021, Kahn, Sievenpiper, and Fernstrom (a long-time resource proficient in creating and spreading glutamate-industry disinformation) published a response – a criticism — of  the Kumar study. 

In analyzing that response, I found it to be generally characteristic of glutamate-industry propaganda, even inventing and using words and phrases that were not used in the Kumar et al. article, and then criticizing their own untruthful creative writing for containing statements that were untrue.

For those of you interested in things like fake news and scientific fraud, I have reproduced my response below, sent to the journal that published the Kahn, Sievenpiper, and Fernstrom piece, and included a question about how the journal allowed a critique, with no presentation of evidence/data, written by persons with conflicts of interest, to be published.

Adrienne Samuels

Samuels analysis of: Commentary: Dietary Glutamic Acid, Obesity, and Depressive Symptoms in Patients With Schizophrenia

Introduction

Kahn et al. (1) have criticized the article written by Kumar et al.(2), (The Article), attributing to it content that it did not have, stating as fact information that is not true, and criticizing information that is not relevant to the message of The Article.

Fabrications of content that The Article did not contain

Fabrication: “Their interpretation of the findings in non-obese individuals seems to be that ingesting dietary protein, which contains glutamate, raises blood glutamate concentrations sufficiently to cause an increase in glutamate penetration into brain, where it acts on neuronal glutamate receptors to cause depression.” [Emphasis added]

Fact: The phrase “raises blood glutamate,” the word “blood,” and the word “penetration” appear nowhere in The Article.

Fabrication: “The authors infer in their introduction that ingesting glutamate can lead directly to increases in brain glutamate levels and adversely modify brain functions via its neurotransmitter role.” 

Fact: Kumar et al. state that “Data shows that over activation of the NDMA receptors by glutamate can be neurotoxic and result in cell death (5).”

Falsehoods

Falsehoods are woven into the text of the Khan et al. criticism as misleading statements, untenable suppositions, and distortions of fact.

Misleading statements

Statement: “The authors conclusions are based on a linear regression analysis…”

Fact: The authors conclusions are based only in part on a linear regression analysis.

Untenable suppositions

“In Table 1 of their paper, the BDI data appear to be non-normally distributed…”

“Furthermore, it is possible that…”

“A non-linear or threshold analysis may show interesting…”

“We believe that the conclusions based upon a linearity assumption in this paper are spurious. If the authors were to run the analysis with appropriate transformation or explore non-linear or threshold analysis using appropriate methods (6), then we surmise that…”

“A more likely path through which dietary glutamate could influence the brain is via its interaction in the alimentary canal with glutamate receptors that occur in the mouth, stomach and intestines.

Distortions of fact / misleading statements 

Distortion: “Such increases in plasma glutamate are insufficient to push glutamate into brain, owing to…”  

Fact: plasma glutamate has never been shown to be relevant to glutamate induced brain damage.

Distortion: ‘These cells are joined by tight junctions, and form the “blood-brain barrier” (BBB)… that prevent glutamate passage from blood into brain (16).”

Fact: I know of only one author (reference 16) who alleges to demonstrate that the blood brain barrier (BBB) prevents glutamate passage from blood into brain, while there are studies that report BBB permeability. The five studies identified here are examples. (3-7).

Distortion: “humans do not willingly consume such large amounts of pure MSG, because it tastes unpleasant (26),” 

Fact: It is the free glutamate in MSG that is excitotoxic, and while the amount of free glutamate in any one ingredient may not be sufficient to cause adverse reactions or brain damage, since the 1957 change in method of MSG production, there are so many products that contain excitotoxins that it is easy for a consumer to ingest an excess of excitotoxic material during the course of a day (8-12).

When glutamic acid accumulates in quantities greater than needed for normal body function, glutamic acid becomes excitotoxic with glutamate neurotransmitter firing repeatedly at glutamate receptors until the cells associated with those glutamate receptors die. 

Brain damage done by excitotoxic glutamate to the fetus and neonate, passed to the fetus across the placenta and to newborns though mothers’ milk, causes obesity and behavior disorders, and reproductive dysfunction during maturity.  MSG (which contains free glutamate) can cross the placenta during pregnancy (13-15), cross the blood brain barrier (BBB) in an unregulated manner during development(16), and pass through the five circumventricular organs which are leaky at best at any stage of life (17-18). At one time it would have been meaningful to note that the excitotoxic material in a particular ingredient would not be sufficient to cause brain damage or adverse reactions.  But since the 1957 change in method of MSG production, there are so many products that contain excitotoxins that it is easy to ingest an excess of excitotoxic material during the course of a day (8-12). 

Information irrelevant to the subject of The Article

1) “Each antipsychotic (and antidepressant) should have been identified.… smoking should have been included as a factor in this study.”

2) The topics cited by Kahn et al. in their criticism of The Article (glutamate metabolism, the contribution of free glutamate to metabolism of glutamate, and plasma glutamate levels) as being misunderstood by Kumar et al. are topics without evidence/data relating them to glutamate-induced brain damage. None are relevant to the subject of The Article.

(Studies alleging these subjects are relevant to glutamate safety have always been sponsored by the glutamate industry.)

3) Information about taste, glutamate binding, and a distinction between protein ingestion and MSG ingestion are irrelevant to The Article.

Conflicts of interest of the critics

Sievenpiper admits working for a large segment of the processed food industry as well as the International Life Science Institute (ILSI), the International Food Information Council (IFIC), and the International Glutamate Technical Committee (IGTC), three representatives of the U.S. manufacturer of MSG.

In the face of a 1991 60 Minutes program on monosodium glutamate, the IFIC ran damage control for MSG manufacturer Ajinomoto.  Prior to being exposed for inappropriate conduct, the IGTC‘s chairman designed and implemented double-blind studies claiming there was no evidence that MSG is toxic.  Their “fail-safe” tactic was to use excitotoxic aspartic acid in placebos.  Aspartic acid is an amino acid known to cause adverse reactions identical to those caused by the glutamate in MSG.

Fernstrom has represented the interests of the glutamate industry for more than four decades. And given the extremes to which he has gone to reinvent the article being criticized, this work gives every appearance of suffering from conflicts of interest.

Summary and conclusions

The article, Commentary: Dietary Glutamic Acid, Obesity, and Depressive Symptoms in Patients With Schizophrenia by Khan, Sievenpiper and Fernstrom is nothing but an exercise in disinformation.

References

1. Kahn TA, Sievenpiper JL, Fernstrom JD.  Commentary: Dietary Glutamic Acid, Obesity, and Depressive Symptoms in Patients With Schizophrenia. Front Psychiatry. (2021) 14 October 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.725786

2. Kumar P, Kraal AZ, Prawdzik AM, Ringold AE, Ellingrod V. Dietary Glutamic Acid, Obesity, and Depressive Symptoms in Patients With Schizophrenia. Front Psychiatry. (2021) Jan 21;11:620097. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.620097. PMID: 33551881; PMCID: PMC7859478.

3. Pollak TA, Drndarski S, Stone JM, David AS, McGuire P, Abbott NJ. The blood-brain barrier in psychosis. Lancet Psychiatry. (2018) Jan;5(1):79-92. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(17)30293-6. Epub 2017 Aug 3. PMID: 28781208.

4. 8. Vazana U, Veksler R, Pell GS, Prager O, Fassler M, Chassidim Y, Roth Y, Shahar H, Zangen A, Raccah R, Onesti E, Ceccanti M, Colonnese C, Santoro A, Salvati M, D’Elia A, Nucciarelli V, Inghilleri M, Friedman A. Glutamate-Mediated Blood-Brain Barrier Opening: Implications for Neuroprotection and Drug Delivery. J Neurosci. (2016) Jul 20;36(29):7727-39. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0587-16.2016. PMID: 27445149; PMCID: PMC4951577.

5. Michinaga S, Koyama Y. Dual Roles of Astrocyte-Derived Factors in Regulation of Blood-Brain Barrier Function after Brain Damage. Int J Mol Sci. (2019) Jan 29;20(3):571. doi: 10.3390/ijms20030571. PMID: 30699952; PMCID: PMC6387062.

6. Gynther M, Petsalo A, Hansen SH, Bunch L, Pickering DS. Blood-brain barrier permeability and brain uptake mechanism of kainic acid and dihydrokainic acid. Neurochem Res. (2015) Mar;40(3):542-9. doi: 10.1007/s11064-014-1499-4. Epub 2014 Dec 9. PMID: 25488153.

7. Zhang C, Jiang M, Wang WQ, Zhao SJ, Yin YX, Mi QJ, Yang MF, Song YQ, Sun BL, Zhang ZY. Selective mGluR1 Negative Allosteric Modulator Reduces Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability and Cerebral Edema After Experimental Subarachnoid Hemorrhage. Transl Stroke Res. (2020) Aug;11(4):799-811. doi: 10.1007/s12975-019-00758-z. Epub 2019 Dec 12. PMID: 31833035.

8. Hashimoto S. Discovery and History of Amino Acid Fermentation.  Adv Biochem Eng Biotechnol. (2017)159:15-34. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27909736/

9. Sano C. History of glutamate production. Am J Clin Nutr. (2009) 90(3):728S-732S.  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19640955/

10. Market Research Store. Global Monosodium Glutamate Market Poised to Surge from USD 4,500.0 Million in 2014 to USD 5,850.0 Million by 2020.https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2016/03/17/820804/0/en/Global-Monosodium-Glutamate-Market-Poised-to-Surge-from-USD-4-500-0-Million-in-2014-to-USD-5-850-0-Million-by-2020-MarketResearchStore-Com.html  (Accessed 5/29/2020.)

11. Open PR Worldwide Public Relations for Verified Market. Global Flavor Enhancers Market. https://www.bccresearch.com/partners/verified-market-research/global-flavor-enhancers-market.html (Accessed 5/29/2020.)

12. Dataintelo. Global Food Flavor Enhancer Market Report, History and Forecast 2014-2025, Breakdown Data by Manufacturers, Key Regions, Types and Application.  https://dataintelo.com/report/food-flavor-enhancer-market   (Accessed 5/29/2020)

13. Frieder B, Grimm VE. Prenatal Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) Treatment Given through the Mother’s Diet Causes Behavioral Deficits in Rat Offspring. Int. J. Neurosci. (1984) 23(2), 117–126. DOI: 10.3109/00207458408985353. 

14. Gao J, Wu J, Zhao XN, Zhang WN, Zhang YY, Zhang ZX. [Transplacental Neurotoxic Effects of Monosodium Glutamate on Structures and Functions of Specific Brain Areas of Filial Mice.] Sheng Li Hsueh Pao. Acta Physiologica Sinica. (1994) 46(1), 44–51. 

15. Yu, T.; Zhao, Y.; Shi, W.; Ma, R.; Yu, L. Effects of Maternal Oral Administration of Monosodium Glutamate at a Late Stage of Pregnancy on Developing Mouse Fetal Brain. Brain Res. (1997) 747(2), 195–206. DOI: 10.1016/S0006-8993(96)01181-X. 

16. Skultetyova, I.; Tokarev, D.; Jezova, D. Stress-induced Increase in Blood-brain Barrier Permeability in Control and Monosodium Glutamate-treated Rats. Brain Res. Bull. (1998) 45(2), 175–178. DOI: 10.1016/S0361-9230(97)00335-3. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]

17. Price, M. T.; Olney, J. W.; Lowry, O. H.; Buchsbaum, S. Uptake of Exogenous Glutamate and Aspartate by Circumventricular Organs but Not Other Regions of Brain. J. Neurochem. (1981) 36(5), 1774–1780. DOI: 10.1111/jnc.1981.36.issue-5. 

18. Broadwell, R. D.; Sofroniew, M. V. Serum Proteins Bypass the Blood-brain Fluid Barriers for Extracellular Entry to the Central Nervous System. Exp. Neurol. (1993) 120(2), 245–263. DOI: 10.1006/exnr.1993.1059. 


If you have questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you. If you have hints for others on how to avoid exposure to MfG, send them along, too, and we’ll put them up on Facebook. Or you can reach us at questionsaboutmsg@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @truthlabeling.

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Toxic glutamate in your food?

When I filed three citizen petitions with the FDA at the beginning of this year, I wasn’t expecting the Glutamate Association to respond. It typically never acknowledges anything negative about its flagship product MSG, that is loaded with toxic free glutamate. But this time it did.

Now, inspired by those comments from the “Glutes” I have produced a website dedicated to laying out the evidence behind the requests made in those petitions — one being that manufactured free glutamate (MfG) and those ingredients that contain MfG should be removed from the FDA’s list of GRAS (generally recognized as safe) substances.

It’s no secret that disease and disability may be caused, at least in part, by toxic chemicals released into the air and added to food. But while chemicals such as lead and asbestos and hazardous air pollutants are recognized as noxious by government agencies, poisonous chemicals used in foods and beverages are rarely acknowledged as such.

The website “Seven Lines of Evidence leading to the conclusion that manufacture free glutamate is toxic,” was created to draw attention to the class of chemicals known as excitotoxins – brain damaging amino acids – recognized by neuroscientists as being toxic, but not acknowledged by the FDA as such. 

Glutamic acid (as in pea protein isolate) and aspartic acid (as in aspartame), two of the three excitotoxic amino acids used in food, are being used as flavor enhancers, protein supplements, and low calorie (diet) sweeteners, added in quantity to infant formula, enteral care products, protein powders, dietary supplements, processed foods, so-called “plant-based” products, snacks, anything that is hydrolyzed, some pesticides/fertilizers and pharmaceuticals.

The FDA, EPA, and USDA will claim that the excitotoxins used in food are perfectly safe.  The evidence says otherwise.

You’ll find Seven Lines of Evidence at https://7lines.org/.  Please use the contact form at the webpage for questions and comments.

In Health,

Adrienne Samuels, Ph.D.
Director, Truth in Labeling Campaign

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‘Likely culprit’ in celiac disease hidden in processed foods

Why is Ajinomoto trying so hard to keep transglutaminase unlabeled?

Over the past few decades celiac disease (CD) has morphed into a “major public health problem.” Along with it, other autoimmune conditions such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis, are also topping the charts as very common disorders with dozens of heavily advertised drugs created to treat them.

If you ask why, the knee-jerk response is typically that better testing has uncovered all these otherwise undisclosed conditions. But does that really explain things? And it certainly doesn’t take into consideration what experts refer to as large numbers of people with undiagnosed autoimmune diseases, especially CD.

Back in 2015 two researchers with expertise in metabolic diseases, Aaron Lerner, a professor at Tel Aviv University, and Torsten Matthias, affiliated with the AESKU.KIPP Institute in Germany, first sounded the alarm on a largely unknown, widely used food additive – an enzyme called transglutaminase (TG). At that time, they proposed a “hypothesis” linking TG used in food processing to celiac and other autoimmune diseases. Four years later, however, the pair stated that further research and observations have closed the “gaps” in our understanding of how TG is an “inducer of celiac disease.”   

Big Food’s favorite find to ‘glue’ things together

Transglutaminase, a.k.a. “meat glue,” is the darling of Big Food for lots of reasons: it can glue together scraps of fish, chicken and meat into whole-looking cuts (often called “Frankenmeats”); extend the shelf life of processed foods (even pasta); improve “texture,” especially in low-salt, low-fat products; make breads and pastries (particularly gluten-free ones) rise better, and, as one manufacturer puts it, allow for use of things that would ordinarily be tossed out — unappetizing leftovers and scraps of food that would “otherwise be considered waste ingredients, creating an added-value product.”

But more than just turning “waste ingredients” into new food products, there are a host of other reasons why you should do your best to steer clear of meat glue.

‘Tight junction dysfunction’

The 2015 research published by Lerner and Matthias detailed how certain food additives may be behind the steady rise of autoimmune diseases due to something called “tight junction dysfunctions,” which can set the stage for a wide variety of serious ailments, calling out transglutaminase as one of the commonly used food additives that can enhance “intestinal junction leakage.”

A subsequent study in 2019 recognized transglutaminase as a “likely culprit” in celiac disease.

In 2020, Lerner and Matthias published yet another paper on transglutaminase and celiac disease, calling it a “potential public health concern” and saying that they hope their review will “encourage clinical, scientific and regulatory debates on (its) safety to protect the public.”

Despite all the warnings and additional research, use of the enzyme is booming, and all its food uses are now considered GRAS (generally recognized as safe) by the FDA.

TG and MSG

The similarities between MSG and transglutaminase are quite noteworthy. Not only is the enzyme manufactured in great quantities by Ajinomoto (as is MSG) but the way TG is promoted by the company is remarkably similar to its long-running propaganda campaign claiming that MSG is a safe ingredient.

For example, Ajinomoto states on its websites and elsewhere that both MSG and TG are “found in food naturally,” are “safe,” used in many countries and considered GRAS in the U.S. by the FDA. And just as MSG supposedly in no way causes serious reactions, the company says that TG in no way causes celiac disease – in fact, under some circumstances the TG added to food can actually help CD patients, Ajinomoto says.

While transglutaminase is found naturally in the human body (as is glutamate), there is a significant difference between microbial TG (the manufactured additive) and “our own transglutaminase” says Lerner.  (Just as there is a major difference between manufactured MSG and the glutamate in your body).

That’s because the tissue TG produced in the body “has a different structure (from) the microbial sort, which allows its activity to be tightly controlled. Microbial transglutaminase itself could also increase intestinal permeability,” he says, “by directly modifying proteins that hold together the intestinal barrier.”

The FDA has “no questions”

While once the FDA pretended to look into the safety of a product before granting it GRAS status, not even that is done any more.  Now a company simply turns in a statement that a product should be referred to as GRAS, and it’s done.

Starting in 1998 Ajinomoto filed four notices of “self-determined” GRAS status for TG with the FDA. The first was to use TG in seafood. In 1999 they sent in more intended uses for hard and soft cheeses, yogurt, and “vegetable protein dishes/veggie burgers/meat substitutes.” In 2000 Ajinomoto sent another notice to the FDA regarding using transglutaminase in pasta, bread, pastries, ready-to-eat cereal, pizza dough and “grain mixtures.”

And in 2002, Ajinomoto asked that anything else it might have previously overlooked, referred to as “use in food in general,” be given GRAS status. None of these GRAS notices elicited any objections from the FDA.  Nothing that Big Food asks for is even questioned any more.

Included in the 2001 “everything else” notification from Ajinomoto were some details of a 30-day toxicity study using beagles. Despite findings that included dogs that had developed a pituitary gland cyst, discoloration of the lungs, an enlarged uterus and “significantly” lower prostate weights, all that was considered “incidental and unrelated” to TG. Why they bothered to include a study that shows that their product causes harm to the animals studied can only be understood if you know how Ajinomoto operates.  Having done a study, they can later refer to the study that they did as though it proved that their product was “safe,” knowing that no one will challenge them. Such claims have great propaganda value.

The FDA had “no questions.”

Transglutaminase, here, there and everywhere

Lerner and Matthias have been warning for years about TG hidden in processed foods, saying it’s “unlabeled and hidden from public knowledge.” As we mentioned in another blog on TG several weeks ago, aside from “formed” meat products sold in supermarkets in the U.S. where the enzyme must be called out on the ingredient statement, TG can easily go undercover. 

And Ajinomoto has even added its own tips to help food manufacturers avoid labeling by providing an explanation of how TG is just a “processing aid,” as well as making available a letter authored by a law firm in Germany stating that aside from use in “formed” meat or fish, transglutaminase is “no ingredient” and as such in the EU does not have to be included on a food label. In fact, the lawyers go so far as to state that if a substance (such as TG) is “without any function in the finished product,” listing it on the ingredient label can “mislead the consumer.”

The FDA told us that if TG is used as a “processing aid” it’s considered an “incidental additive” and is “exempted from ingredient labeling.”

Even organic products aren’t safe from TG, as TG is considered A-OK to use it in organic foods, falling under the “allowed” generic category of “enzymes” on the USDA “National list of allowed and prohibited substances” in organic food and farming.

Perhaps the most devious use of this enzyme is to improve the appearance of gluten-free bakery products. Manufactured, microbial transglutaminase “functionally imitates” natural-tissue TG, which is known to be an autoantigen (a “self” antigen, reacting to something produced by the body that provokes an immune response) in those who suffer from celiac disease.  

Steering clear of transglutaminase

The TG story could very well be called a case against processed foods, as the only sure-fire way to avoid this gut-wrenching enzyme is to make/cook all your food from scratch. That being a very unlikely prospect these days, the next best thing is to avoid the following:

  • Low-fat and low-salt products, especially dairy and dairy substitutes;
  • Chicken nuggets, along with any other “formed” meat products;
  • Expensive cuts of meat being sold much cheaper than they should be (that especially is true for restaurants);
  • Sushi from unreliable sources, formed fish sticks and balls;
  • Veggie and tofu burgers; and
  • Cheaply produced pasta (TG is said to help when using “damaged wheat flour”).

When asked what he would consider to be an important take-away regarding transglutaminase, Professor Lerner told us that it would be for the FDA to “reconsider the classification of (manufactured) TG as GRAS.”


If you have questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you. If you have hints for others on how to avoid exposure to MfG, send them along, too, and we’ll put them up on Facebook. Or you can reach us at questionsaboutmsg@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @truthlabeling.