High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Monosodium glutamate, also known as sodium glutamate or MSG, is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, one of the most abundant naturally occurring non-essential amino acids. It was classified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) and by the European Union as a food additive. MSG has the HS code 29224220 and the E number E621. The glutamate of MSG confers the same umami taste of glutamate from other foods, being chemically identical. Industrial food manufacturers market and use MSG as a flavor enhancer because it balances, blends and rounds the total perception of other tastes. Trade names of monosodium glutamate include Ac`cent, Aji-No-Moto, and Vetsin.