Monosodium glutamate, commonly known as MSG, is a flavor enhancer widely used in foods.

The white, crystalline powder is the sodium salt of glutamic acid and occurs naturally in sugar beets, soybeans and seaweed.

MSG has no flavor of its own but intensifies and enhances the flavor of foods cooked with it.

How MSG works is not clear: Western scientists think it stimulates taste receptors, while Asian scientists believe it has a fifth taste beyond salty, sweet, sour, or bitter.

Optimal concentrations of food are 0.2 to 0.5 percent; at levels over 1 percent a sweetish taste may occur.

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