Breaking News: FDA poised to promote even more MSG and free glutamate-containing additives in food

Old FDA regulation will be modified to allow more toxic additives in the food supply under the guise of the 'war on salt'

If you’re concerned about toxic additives in processed foods, watch out – things are about to get a lot worse.

The glutamate industry has been trying for a very long time to promote MSG and other glutamate-containing additives* as “good for you” ways to reduce sodium. Now, with a big helping hand from its friends at the FDA, these brain-damaging additives will be used in even greater quantities and in foods you might not expect to find them in.

On April 7, the FDA pre-published notice of its intent to allow foods that include salt as an optional or required ingredient to now be manufactured with “salt substitutes.”

The notice concerns foods that fall under an old FDA regulation called a “standard of identity,” or SOI.

The SOI defines what makes up a particular processed food – in some cases even how it looks and how it must be formulated. The FDA currently has a legally binding SOI for 250 items ranging from peanut butter to pasta to bread to cheese and condiments, consisting of a detailed description of that food and what it can (or must) contain. Around 140 specify salt – either as a required or optional ingredient.

Here’s where this planned regulation is about to make the food supply even more treacherous than it already is.

The proposal will amend the SOI in those 140 foods to allow manufacturers to swap out some or all of the sodium they contain with “salt substitutes,” something that would not be allowed under the current regulations. And what might those salt substitutes be, you ask?

Good question. And it’s one the FDA isn’t prepared to answer.

As stated in its pre-publication notice “We are proposing to define salt substitute broadly to provide flexibility and facilitate innovation in the future without the need for additional rulemaking.”

The FDA did add this line as an example of ingredients in the “scientific literature” that can be used to replace salt: “…herbs and spices, yeast extracts, monosodium glutamate, amino acids and dairy extracts.”

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf called the proposal “another step forward in our efforts to improve nutrition and reduce chronic disease by providing manufacturers another tool to lower the use of sodium in food.”

Too bad Dr. Califf forgot to mention that MSG and other free-glutamate-containing ingredients contribute to brain damage, obesity, infertility, A-fib, migraine headache, asthma, seizures, and many other diseases and ailments.

The proposed rule will publish in the Federal Register on April 10, 2023. After publication you can enter comments until August 8. In the meantime, the pre-publication notice can be read here:

https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2023-06456.pdf

*Free glutamate is the the toxic component of MSG, manufactured using genetically modified bacteria that excrete glutamic acid. Along with MSG, there are dozens of additives that contain free glutamate used to enhance the flavor of processed foods. For a complete list go here. Our friends at the Truth in Labeling Campaign have done more to bring awareness to this topic than anyone else on the planet!