It is monosodium glutamate that plays the largest role in food and in particular flavoring enhancing. Monosodium glutamate is used in a wide range of foods, including canned meat and fish, spreads, soups and other processed foods.
Monosodium glutamate is an odorless, white, crystalline substance that resembles salt. It has property of enhancing the flavor of meat and other protein foods.
Originally MSG was extracted from natural materials and hydrolyzed proteins but from the late 1950s it has been made by fermentation.
In the production of L-glutamate, only Corynebacterium glutamicum is used, although E- coli and other organism are also able to excrete glutamate.
Glutamate is synthesized from 2-oxoglutarate by one –step reaction catalyzed by the NADPH dependent glutamate dehydrogenase, which is the main pathway for glutamate formation when the ammonium concentration is sufficiently high.
Therefore, ammonium is added in a low concentration at the beginning of the fermentation and is then added continuously during the course of the fermentation.
Yield of between 60 and 70% is based in the glucose used. At the end of the fermentation the broth contains L- glutamate in the form of its ammonium salt.
Production of monosodium glutamate
