Production and Chemical Properties
Since MSG was released into the market, it has been produced by three methods: hydrolysis of vegetable proteins with hydrochloric acid to disrupt peptide bonds (1909–1962), direct chemical synthesis with acrylonitrile (1962–1973), and bacterial fermentation: the current method.
Initially, wheat gluten was used for hydrolysis because it contains more than 30 g of glutamate and glutamine in 100 g of protein. But as the production to achieve the ever-increasing demand for MSG augmented, new production processes were studied: chemical synthesis and fermentation. The polyacrylic fiber industry began in Japan in the mid 1950s and acrylonitrile was adopted then as starting material to synthesize MSG.
Currently, most of the world production of MSG is by bacterial fermentation in a process similar to wine, vinegar, yogurt and even chocolate. Sodium is added later through the steps of neutralization. During fermentation, selected bacteria (coryneform bacteria) cultured with ammonia and carbohydrates from sugar beets, sugar cane, tapioca or molasses, excrete amino acids into the culture broth from where L-glutamate is isolated. Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co Ltd developed the first industrial fermentation to produce L-glutamate. Nowadays, the conversion yield and production rate from sugars to glutamate continues to improve in the industrial production of MSG, which allows for keeping up with demand. The final product after filtration, concentration, acidification and crystallization is pure glutamate, sodium and water. It appears as a white, odorless crystalline powder that in solution dissociates into glutamate and sodium. It is freely soluble in water but not hygroscopic and practically insoluble in common organic solvents such as ether. In general, MSG is stable under the conditions of regular food processing. During cooking, MSG does not decompose: Like other amino acids, browning or Maillard reactions will occur in the presence of sugars at very high temperatures.
Read more about this topic: Monosodium Glutamate
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