Monosodium glutamate, responsible for the umami taste of foods, has had its days as a villain, being associated with several problems related to its consumption. However, research has advanced showing that, on the contrary, its moderate use can bring benefits. This discussion is carried out at Unicamp by the Food and Drug Toxicology Group, from the Faculty of Food Engineering (FEA). The group's researchers and other experts in the field met last Monday (13), at the “I Workshop on Monosodium Glutamate and Umami Taste Perception: Nutrition and Central Control Mechanisms”, in the FEA's Main Hall. The event was organized in partnership with the Obesity and Comorbidities Research Center (OCRC), of the Institute of Biology (IB), with the aim of expanding knowledge in the area of food safety.
According to the workshop coordinator, Felix Reyes, the idea was to establish a dialogue between experts and researchers who use the molecule on different aspects. Monosodium glutamate is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, an amino acid abundant in nature and found in many foods. The industry uses it as an additive to enhance the flavor of food and in research it is also universally used to induce obesity in animal experiments, one of the debates held at the workshop.
Glutamate provides the umami flavor, the fifth flavor of our palate, in addition to salty, sweet, sour and bitter. “Breast milk contains a quantity of glutamate proportionally greater than that of all other acids present in its composition, that is, nature gave mothers the ability to produce milk with a high glutamate content and this protects the baby from further obesity. late”, says the teacher.
Reyes is the author/organizer of the work Umami and Glutamate: Chemical, Biological and Technological Aspects. He argues that replacing part of the table salt with glutamate when preparing food brings the benefits of reducing the sodium we normally consume. “According to data from the World Health Organization, in Brazil we consume approximately 12 grams of table salt per day. This gives between 5 to 6 grams of sodium. It is a much higher quantity than the recommended amount, which is two grams, at most, per day”, highlights the professor.
Glutamate is most used in Asian countries. China consumes half of the glutamate produced in the world, as Reyes adds. He recalls that a myth was created that consumption is harmful. “Exposure to glutamate, through diet, does not bring adverse effects as when glutamate is injected subcutaneously and in large quantities, as happens in a portion of research”.
The professor also commented that monosodium glutamate is very present in processed foods. For this reason it is consumed more in the United States than in Brazil, for example. Another issue is that food for children cannot contain additives.
