The rash in this photo is a reaction to a dietitian-supervised MSG challenge

Did you know that MSG (monosodium glutamate and other free glutamates) may cause a wide range of symptoms like migraines and headaches, sleeplessness, rapid heartbeat, tachycardia and arrhythmias, foggy brain and poor memory, arthritis, cravings and weight gain?

MSG will be added to your food and hidden, not shown on the ingredients list, if a new food industry application is approved.

A1136 is a food company application to FSANZ for approval to use a new enzyme Protein Glutaminase as a “processing aid to improve protein functionality in baking, noodle, dairy, meat, fish and yeast products”.

There are two things wrong about this enzyme:

• It considerably increases the level of free glutamates in your food. This makes your food more flavour enhanced or, to put it another way, increases the MSG which many consumers seek to avoid.

• It will never be shown on the ingredients label because it will be classified as a “processing aid”, part of an international food industry trend to hide the additives which many seek to avoid.

If this enzyme is approved and hidden, there will be many more used to manufacture currently regulated food preservatives inside your food so that they are not listed on the label. You will have no idea that there are propionate or benzoate preservatives hidden in the food. You will have no idea that the free glutamates have been vastly increased then boosted further with hidden ribonucleotides. And the label may legally say “No MSG” or “No added MSG” or "No preservatives".

Listen to reports

After doing the MSG challenge, I developed strong brain fogging within about an hour - Neil

I kept becoming hugely bloated with griping abdominal pains – reader, Victoria

We went out to a Chinese Restaurant…about an hour after I went to bed it began, I think you'd call it tachycardia, a fast (100) and very irregular heartbeat. I got up, sat up for another 2 hours. Blood pressure had risen incredibly, and over the 2 hours settled down but the feeling of panic stayed - Joy

My 8 yo granddaughter was getting headaches three times a week or more. Sometimes they were so bad she had to take time off school and lie down - Terry

Within 8 to 12 hours of having MSG our daughter went from no pain to all the symptoms of arthritis, swollen joints, very sore, trouble walking, and lots of pain - Sandra

The Food Intolerance Network with over 12,000 families has logged many hundreds of complaints about glutamates, see some at http://www.fedup.com.au/images/stories/SC621MSG.pdf

Listen to the science

See scientific studies showing reactions to MSG monosodium glutamate 621 at http://www.fedup.com.au/factsheets/additive-and-natural-chemical-factsheets/621-msg-msg-boosters-flavour-enhancers-and-natural-glutamates

Use of this enzyme will blatantly mislead the consumer. It is designed to mislead the consumer. We deserve to know what is in our food, always.

Please sign to

• Reject A1136 – Protein Glutaminase as a Processing Aid, a new way of hiding MSG in foods.

• Ask for a regulation to show the free glutamate content of foods on all ingredients labels so that such flavour enhancers are in public gaze, forcing food manufacturers to reduce use.

More information

Application A1136 details
129 ways to hide glutamates and food consumers
More on hiding additives as ingredients
Food industry applicant Amano Enzyme product list, including a range of proteases and glutaminase
EU: Application made but not assessed and approved by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
USA: Currently on GRAS (Generally Recognised As Safe) list maintained by USDA