Estimativa de glutamato monossódico (MSG) adicionado a alguns produtos alimentícios em merca-dos sírios

Introduction: Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is one of the world’s most extensively used food additives which is ingested as part of commercially processed foods. MSG is used as a flavor enhancer and it increases the sapidity of food. MSG produces a flavor that can’t be provided by other foods. It elicits a taste described in Japanese as umami. The toxic effects of MSG have raised the increasing interest in MSG intake as flavor enhancer. It causes many toxic effects on the health. It causes neurotoxicity (it causes Chinese Restaurant Syndrome), obesity, renal toxicity, cardiovascular toxicity, metabolic effects and other health effects. Objective: This study aimed to determine concentration of MSG in some foods products sold in Syrian Markets. Methodology: 40 samples of widely consumed food products were randomly selected from local markets in Damascus and Deratiah as follows: 12 samples chicken luncheon, 5 samples of instant soup, 6 samples of potato chips, 6 samples of chicken broth stocks, 5 samples of instant noodles and 6 samples of meat broth powder (each powder sachet is equivalent to one stock). A simple HPLC-UV method, based on a derivatization procedure with o-phthaldialdehyde (OPA) was used for determination of MSG in the samples. And a cross-sectional study was performed by using SPSS program. Results: Results revealed that the levels of monosodium glutamate (g/100 g) were varied in the examined foodstuffs. Chicken broth stocks samples had the highest levels of MSG with an average of (13.98), followed by (10.60) in samples of meat broth powders, followed by (10.16) in samples of chicken luncheon, followed by (8.9722) in samples of instant noodles, followed by (8.96) in samples of instant soup, while potato chips samples had the lowest levels with an average of (8.53). Conclusions: There was a significant variation in concentrations of MSG between samples of chicken broth stocks and samples of the other categories of food products.