KARACHI:
Recently, I came across an interesting article concerning the misunderstanding surrounding MSG commonly known as Chinese salt. The writer called it an innocent ingredient. This made me wonder if it really is an innocent ingredient, considering that it was banned by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2018 for being a health risk. As a society we do not have the practice of verifying such news and are mostly oblivious of facts. After reading some articles and information on MSG, I realised MSG was banned based on a misperception generated from an old story from the 1960s. I can personally say that I’ve witnessed MSG being used in food in countries I’ve visited which include, Turkey, Thailand, the UAE, etc. How have we ignored decades worth of research presented by FDA giving it a clean chit as safe ingredient? In fact, according to certain studies it is better than regular table salt as it is low in sodium. It contains one-third amount of sodium as opposed to common salt and has been used to enhance the taste in food worldwide. My suggestion would be to start by re-introducing MSG in Pakistan and offer it as a salt substitute due to its low sodium content.
Shehryar Malik
Islamabad
Published in The Express Tribune, September 28th, 2022.
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