MSG and the Maillard Reaction: Exploring Food Additives and Browning through Organic Chemistry

Food additives despite relevant applications in food have received unprecedented backlash over recent decades, this project aims to discourage some of this stigma using organic chemistry. As consumer knowledge begins to grow though with the accessibility of the internet, so does consumer misinformation; central to this is the molecule MSG (monosodium glutamate). This food additive, most common in Eastern Asian cuisine, has been a hot topic for decades receiving stigma that it is generally not deserving of. While much information about this molecule is murky at best, it has a potential application in chemistry that many cooks are keenly aware of - the Maillard Reaction. This reaction is the source of browning of food at high temperatures and uses amino acids derived from proteins and reducing sugars as its primary reactants. MSG being an amino acid, stabilized by an added sodium ion could therefore be used to simulate this reaction without full length proteins.