AJI-NO-MOTO food seasoning safety awareness campaign train moves to the South-East geo-political zone of the country with a courtesy visit to the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, at his residence in Onitsha, Anambra State and over 130 medical professionals and food scientists affirming that the food seasoning also known as Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is safe for consumption.
The Umami food seasoning which has been across the globe for over 100 years is produced in Nigeria by West African Seasoning Company (WASCO) Limited.
Niki Junichi, managing director who led the campaign said the organisations objective is a continual interaction with the medical, scientific and professionals groups, with the aim of using their platforms to dispel the falsehood, perception issues as well as misconceptions that characterised AJI-NO-MOTO MSG in the south.
“MSG is 100 percent safe for consumption, urging the participants to disregard unscientific rumours about the product, describing them as ’fake news,” he said In his welcome address at a one day Umami Seminar with stakeholders, held at the Presidential Hall, All Saints Cathedral Onitsha.
According to Junichi, umami is the fifth basic taste along with sweet, bitter, salty and sour while glutamate is an amino acid found naturally in protein-containing foods such as meat, tomato, vegetables, poultry and human breast milk.
“The seasoning is made from natural sugarcane and therefore, safe for consumption. What people are saying about AJI-NO-MOTO is complete fake news because there is no scientific evidence to their claim. For a long time, we have kept quiet about these rumours. But now, we have decided to address them”, he said.
Speaking on the topic: “MSG: A Safe Food Flavour Enhancer”, Helen Henry-Unaeze , a lecturer at the Department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, said glutamate enhances flavour of natural food and also gives it a delicious taste.
She explained: “When you hear of umami, what comes to your mind is MSG, that is AJI-NO-MOTO MSG. And MSG simply means sodium salt of glutamate acid which is an amino acid that is naturally in our body and present in all food especially in protein rich foods. We have it in plant foods, animal, onion, tomato, carrot, locust bean like Daddawa , castor oil bean seed and Iru. When you ferment them, the glutamate in them rises and it’s actually the glutamate that impacts the umami flavour that we are talking about. So, you can see it’s safe for human consumption”.
Dispelling rumours about the product, Henry-Unaeze reminded the participants that as far back as 1998, a research was carried out on MSG at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, which revealed that it was safe for human consumption.
Also, Stanley Egbogu, President, Association of Resident Doctors, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, said some patients mentioned that they took AJI-NO-MOTO and they had diarrhoea. But the truth is that, most diarrhoea diseases are infectious and not mainly from seasoning.
“Naturally, the product does not cause diarrhoea. Safety is guaranteed. It’s just an MSG product”, he added.
ANTHONIA OBOKOH
