An FDA recall of contaminated acid-hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) has led to scrutiny of this misunderstood ingredient of industrial food products. HVP sounds like a means of adding nourishment to manufactured foodstuffs, but it is actually a flavor-enhancer, a neuro-exciter. Active ingredient: glutamic acid. You may recognize one of its salts, monosodium glutamate (MSG).
Many people who avoid MSG still purchase foods containing HVP and other ingredients that do not sound like vegetable byproducts boiled in acid, but that’s what they are. Processed food manufacturers happily label products containing HVP as “No MSG added.” Thanks to recall-fueled scrutiny, this is catching up with them.
The FDA recall was due to a salmonella-contaminated HVP processing plant, but the food-industrial complex will suffer long-term credibility damage now that the HVP cat is out of the bag. There are lists of glutamate-related food additives here and here (scroll down). You will find them on a staggering number of food labels.
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Tags: FDA, food, food safety, glautamic acid, HVP, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, MSG, salmonella
March 14, 2010 at 10:08 pm
MSG gives me terrible, knock-out migraine headaches. I’ll be forever grateful to my cousin for forwarding me this article from the New York Times. The article’s slant is: “See, MSG isn’t bad for you! You eat it all the time because companies use these alternative names for MSG.” It was the first time I became aware that companies were hiding MSG behind other names. I went through the food in my cupboard and found many things with “autolyzed yeast extract.” When I cut those things out of my diet, my headaches went away.
Thank you for sharing the two links with the other pseudonyms for MSG. Sadly, it’s getting to the point that about the only thing that IS safe for me to eat is plain white rice.
March 19, 2010 at 12:05 am
UPDATE: Salon‘s Thomas Rogers says fear of MSG is unfounded.