Tag: FDA

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Industry’s FDA

It’s no secret that the FDA represents the interests of Big Food and Big Pharma – not consumers. Here is a small example of its allegiance to large corporations that we hadn’t noticed before. Unfortunately, many people still believe that if the FDA says something it must be true.

The following comes from the FDA page called “Questions and Answers on Monosodium glutamate (MSG)” found here: https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/questions-and-answers-monosodium-glutamate-msg accessed on 7/22/2020.

What is MSG?

The FDA says that monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the sodium salt of the common amino acid glutamic acid. Glutamic acid is naturally present in our bodies, and in many foods and food additives.

How is it made?

The FDA says that MSG occurs naturally in many foods, such as tomatoes and cheese. People around the world have eaten glutamate-rich foods throughout history. For example, a historical dish in the Asian community is a glutamate-rich seaweed broth. In 1908, a Japanese professor named Kikunae Ikeda was able to extract glutamate from this broth and determined that glutamate provided the savory taste to the soup. Professor Ikeda then filed a patent to produce MSG and commercial production started the following year.

What is MSG?

Mono (single) sodium glutamate in science-speak is glutamate tied to a sodium ion, just as monopotassium glutamate would be glutamate tied to a potassium ion. That’s the makeup of the mono sodium glutamate occurring naturally in our bodies. (Glutamate is rarely found “free,” but is ordinarily tied to an ion such as sodium or potassium.)

The monosodium glutamate that Ajinomoto is selling is made up of manufactured glutamate, the impurities that invariable accompany manufactured glutamate, and sodium.

How is it made?

MSG doesn’t occur naturally anywhere — it’s made – manufactured! The monosodium glutamate that Ajinomoto is selling is a product made in Ajinomoto’s plant in Eddyville Iowa where glutamate is produced by genetically modified bacteria that secrete glutamate through their cell walls, which is then mixed with sodium. (The process for manufacturing MSG has been patented, and as the process is improved over time new patents are awarded.)

Want to learn more about how the FDA cooperates with industry? You’ll find it in our just-out book, The Perfect Poison (available here), on the webpages of the Truth in Labeling Campaign, on Pinterest, in The toxicity/safety of processed free glutamic acid (MSG): A study in suppression of information, and in countless books such as White Wash by Carey Gillam, and Eating May Be Hazardous To Your Health – The Case Against Food Additives by J. Verrett and J. Carper.

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A Must Read!

The Perfect Poison is now available at Amazon.com. See links to buy below.

The Perfect Poison is a tell-all about the toxic effects of monosodium glutamate (MSG) and the U.S. regulatory agency that has successfully suppressed that information for over 50 years.  

But more than a myth-shattering book, The Perfect Poison provides readers with the tools needed to deal with reactions to excitotoxic manufactured free glutamate found in processed and ultra-processed food, or better yet, to avoid it altogether.   

The Perfect Poison also offers an introduction to the thought-provoking hypothesis that excitotoxic manufactured free glutamate, ingested on a daily basis, plays a significant role in the many abnormalities with which glutamate toxicity is associated. 

Available in print and e-book format at Amazon.com

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Coming soon

The “tell-all” about the toxic effects of monosodium glutamate and the U.S. regulatory agency that has been successfully suppressing that information for over 50 years.

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How to guarantee you get the ‘right’ results

Designing studies guaranteed to produce the negative results their authors demand of them is an art form perfected by the manufacturers of monosodium glutamate in the late 1990s.

Having incorporated The Glutamate Association to promote their product, and the International Glutamate Technical Committee to design and implement research which they would claim demonstrates the safety of MSG, they found medical journals to publish their studies, print, internet, and TV sources to carry their interpretations of research results, effectively suppressed any mention that MSG might be toxic, and conspired with the FDA to vouch for the safety of their product.

“Industry’s FDA” elaborates their methods, detailing how they’ve accomplished their mission.  The use of excitotoxic (brain damaging) free glutamate in placebos used in their double-blind studies guaranteed the negative results they were looking for in case the rest of their methodology fell short of the goal.

“Industry’s FDA:”  https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/industrys_fda_final.pdf

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Who is up to the challenge?

Wanted. One savvy person to orchestrate the removal of monosodium glutamate from the FDA’s GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list.

Article Nine of the Bill of Rights refers to the rights retained by the people — and that it is the right of the people to know everything going on in the government.  It is therefore unlawful for the FDA to fail to respond to a Freedom of Information request for copies of data used in granting GRAS status to free glutamic acid used in food.

It seems reasonable to conclude that in order to fill that request, the FDA would have to admit that 1) there are no data that demonstrate that free glutamate can be safely used in food, and 2) the only studies that claim to have demonstrated the safety of free glutamate have been double-blind studies that used excitotoxic aspartic acid (in aspartame) in placebos.

Both aspartic acid (found in aspartame) and glutamic acid (found in MSG) cause brain damage and identical adverse reactions.

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Something to think about: Industry’s FDA

Article Nine of the Bill of Rights refers to the rights retained by the people — and that it is the right of the people to know everything going on in the government.  It is therefore unlawful for the FDA to fail to respond to a Freedom of Information request for copies of data used by the FDA for determining to give GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status to free glutamic acid used in food.

It seems reasonable to conclude that in filling the request for data, the FDA would have to admit that 1) there are no data that demonstrate that free glutamate can be safely used in food, and 2) that the only studies that claim to have demonstrated the safety of free glutamate have been double-blind studies where excitotoxic aspartic acid (in aspartame) has been used in placebos.

Aspartic acid (in aspartame) and glutamic acid (in MSG) both cause brain damage and identical adverse reactions.

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Warnings the FDA isn’t sharing

In 1992, a study done by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) on the safety of amino acids in dietary supplements warned about the use of manufactured free glutamate (MfG) in supplements.

That information was never shared with the public.

As early as 1990, the FDA became aware that MfG produced through acid hydrolysis of proteins contains carcinogenic mono and dichloro propanols that contribute to the development of cancer.

That information was never shared with the public.

Since 1990, the FDA has been thinking about sharing it.

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Waiting on the FDA, an exercise in futility

Are you still waiting for the FDA to remove MSG and MfG — manufactured free glutamate — from the FDA’s GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list?  So are we.  But it won’t happen.  The FDA is on record as not doing anything that the Glutes don’t want them to do.  So the chances that the FDA will ever respond to Citizen Petition FDA-2021-P-0035 are next to none.

There is a great deal of evidence that attests to the fact that MSG and its MfG component cause brain damage as well as adverse reactions like heart irregularities, asthma, and seizures.  And there is absolutely no evidence that either MSG or MfG is harmless.

It’s all there for you to read on the pages of The Truth In Labeling Campaign Website (www.truthinlabeling.org).  But to save you time here are a number of resources for easy access.

  • Review of animal studies done in the 1970s that have demonstrated the toxicity of MSG and MfG: evidence that the glutamate in MSG and other flavor enhancers and protein substitutes becomes excitotoxic – brain damaging – when present in amounts that exceed what a healthy subject needs for normal body function: https://www.truthinlabeling.org/assets/seven_lines/Seven_Lines_Lines2.pdf
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FDA violates its own rules in calling MSG ‘safe’

BY FDA REGULATIONS: According to Sections 201(s) and 409 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and FDA regulations 21 CFR 170.3 and 21 CFR 170.30, the use of a food substance may be GRAS (generally recognized as safe) either through scientific procedures or, for a substance used in food before 1958, through experience based on common use in food.

In short, to be designated FDA GRAS an ingredient must be tested for safety using scientific procedures (with the same evidence as required for food additive approval), unless it is known to be safe through common use in food prior to January 1958.

FACT: Neither the monosodium glutamate in use prior to 1957 (MSG-1) nor the monosodium glutamate in use today (MSG-2) has ever been tested for safety.

FACT: The monosodium glutamate in use today (MSG-2) is not the same monosodium glutamate that was grandfathered GRAS in 1958 (MSG-1), yet the FDA seems not to have noticed.

FACT: Glutamic acid is an excitotoxic amino acid. When ingested in controlled quantities, glutamic acid is essential to normal function of the body. But when ingested in excess, it causes brain damage, leading to a variety of abnormalities. Prior to 1957, when MSG-1 was the source of monosodium glutamate, there was not enough manufactured free glutamate added to food to cause glutamate to become excitotoxic. That changed with the introduction of MSG-2.

FACT: MSG-2, the monosodium glutamate in use today, could not have been grandfathered GRAS in 1958 because it didn’t exist.

CONCLUSION: To be designated FDA GRAS, an ingredient has to be tested for safety using scientific procedures – unless it was known to be safe through experience based on common use in food prior to January 1958. MSG-2, the monosodium glutamate in use today was neither.

For more details, and to read the FDA rules as they appear in the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations go here.

Adrienne Samuels, Ph.D.

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Have your say!

FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf sits in front of a teleprompter on Feb. 23 holding his first virtual meeting with FDA employees.

FDA Commissioner Califf is looking for suggestions for staffing.  The Truth in Labeling Campaign tweeted that he should start by hiring someone who will oversee removing toxic chemicals from food.  Someone who doesn’t work for Big Food or Big Pharma.  Someone who will really do something.

Commissioner Califf’s twitter address is @DrCaliff_FDA.

Drop him a tweet to inspire the FDA to do something that will benefit consumers.  It’s @DrCaliff_FDA.