Efficacy of Monosodium Glutamate as a Flavour Potentiator in Salt Reduction: A Review

Sodium is an essential micro nutrient and an indispensable ingredient in most of the savoury foods. The salty taste is mainly contributed by sodium chloride through a proto-typical stimulus. The current sodium intake has been estimated to be exceeding normal recommendation at an alarming rate. This has given rise to health concerns since excessive sodium intake is associated with rise in blood pressure and eventually to cardiovascular diseases. The habitual salt intake among Asian population is around 10-12g/day against the WHO recommendation of 5-6g/day. Today food processing industries are facing challenges pertaining to sodium reduction, since it reduces the overall acceptability. In any food sodium can be reduced through a gradual lowering of salt level, however, this would require several months since it also decreases the overall palatability of foods. Another strategy that can be adopted to overcome this problem is to employ salt substitutes like monosodium glutamate (MSG). MSG has 30% less sodium in comparison to table salt and can help maintain palatability of foods. There are many studies supporting this observation. Our studies on the acceptability profile of salt reduced MSG incorporated fried preparations showed that approximately 25% of salt could be reduced in products without any significant effect on flavor profile. The results indicated that spice added product could be consumed with lower sodium levels and MSG had synergistic effect with spices. In salt reduced tomato soups, the control product with low salt was given lower scores as against MSG incorporated samples. It was also observed that increasing levels of MSG resulted in higher acceptance of products. Hence, it can be said that using MSG as a substitute would be a better option for maintaining adequate palatability in savoury foods with reduced sodium content.