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11 October 2002 FSANZ rejects food service labelling for monosodium glutamate Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) announced this week that it will not be proceeding with an application from New South Wales Health to require food outlets to label the presence of monosodium glutamate (MSG) added to foods. The Managing Director of FSANZ, Ian Lindenmayer said “Our risk analysis found overwhelming evidence that MSG is safe for the general population at the levels typically incorporated into various foods.” In its conclusions FSANZ stated that “mandatory declaration is reserved for those substances that may cause severe adverse reactions when present in foods.” It also stated that labelling of MSG in restaurants would not serve its intended purpose “as it would only apply to MSG added at the eating establishment not to MSG/glutamate from all sources. This also has the potential to result in misleading information being provided to consumers.” Monosodium glutamate’s safety has been repeatedly affirmed by regulators and scientific agencies around the world. In its assessment FSANZ’s report referred specifically to two recent evaluations of MSG safety: the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) undertook an evaluation of MSG in 1987, and the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) in 1995. Both reviews concluded that MSG is safe and does not represent a hazard to health for the general population. The International Glutamate Information Service welcomes FSANZ’s decision and its affirmation of glutamate safety. Monosodium glutamate is the salt of glutamate, an amino acid found naturally in protein containing foods such as meat, vegetables and dairy products. Because glutamate is the source of the unique taste of umami it is added to some savory foods in the form of monosodium glutamate to enhance flavor. However, glutamate added to foods in this way represents just a small fraction of the glutamate consumed in the average daily diet (0.5g to 1.5g on average from MSG compared to 10g to 20g from other dietary sources per day). The glutamate present in food and the glutamate derived from MSG, are identical and our bodies treat glutamate in the same way whether it comes from a tomato, parmesan cheese, meat or MSG seasoning. A full copy of FSANZ’s assessment can be found at: |