Monosodium L-glutamate
Monosodium L-glutamate appears in 56 indexed US food products. No FDA SAFFA status or CSPI rating is attached in this snapshot, so this page reports prevalence rather than a safety verdict.
What the data can answer
Monosodium L-glutamate appears in 56 catalogued products, but this snapshot has no FDA SAFFA status or CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating attached to it. This page therefore cannot answer whether the ingredient is safe from those sources. It can show how often it occurs, where it tends to sit on labels, and which kinds of products contain it.
- 56
- catalogued products
- #4,499
- usage rank of 247,206
- 37
- named brands represented
- 54%
- average depth down ingredient lists
Catalog prevalence comes from Open Food Facts ingredient lists. FDA SAFFA and CSPI Chemical Cuisine labels are shown only when the source record contains them.
High-volume listing for Monosodium L-glutamate - usage rank #4,499
- Usage rank
- #4,499
- of 247,206 ingredients that appear in at least one catalogued product, tied with 53 others that also appear in exactly 58 products.
- Typical depth in an ingredient list
- 54%
- Averaged label depth puts Monosodium L-glutamate in the lower half of the list (54% of list length, mean slot 14.2). Compound ingredients and OCR noise mean this cannot stand in for quantity.
Computed from parsed product ingredient lists (Open Food Facts). The ranking covers 247,206 ingredients that appear at least once. Neither usage rank nor label depth is a safety clearance.
What this page can and cannot answer
Use prevalence before concern
Only 14.3% of linked products carry any separately flagged ingredient. The stronger differentiator here is market placement: Monosodium L-glutamate spans 37 named brands and is led by the Plant-based foods and beverages group. Start with Agv, Vegetarian Barbecue Sauce; Beef flavor ramen noodle soup; Bonito & Seaweed Topping For Rice when comparing real formulations. Because the flagged component may be something else, neither the low co-occurrence rate nor the 97.2/100 product average proves this ingredient safe.
37 named brands carry this ingredient
The processing evidence is heterogeneous rather than a single shelf pattern: the largest NOVA group contains 56 of 56 classified products, leaving a meaningful remainder elsewhere. This breadth is why the page reports label depth, category, and product examples separately. Those dimensions help locate comparable products; combining them into a stronger safety claim would hide the variation the catalog actually contains.
Next check: compare label position across two brands before treating prevalence as equivalent exposure.
How do the sampled products compare?
Each point is one of the 16 sampled products listed below: its overall safety score against how many separately flagged ingredients its label carries. Bubble size is the number of ingredient rows the label actually resolved to.
Safety score vs. flagged-ingredient count for products containing Monosodium L-glutamate
Products Containing Monosodium L-glutamate
High-volume slice (16 of 56) for products naming Monosodium L-glutamate:
Peer ingredients with comparable catalog mass (near “Almond Base”)
Monosodium L-glutamate sits among other busy catalog rows (56 products, mean score 97.2/100). Comparable product-count neighbours: Almond Base · Apples With Calcium Ascorbate To Promote Whiteness And Maintain Texture · Beta-carotene For Color. Count peers and score peers are listed separately on purpose.
Similar product count
Nearest other ingredients by Open Food Facts product count (floored at ≥50).
Similar mean product score
Nearest other ingredients by mean product screening score (floored at ≥50 scored products), distinct from the count row.
Using the Monosodium L-glutamate evidence
Start from Monosodium L-glutamate's 56 catalogued appearances and the attached source fields, then open the product rows that match your use case.
- Review the sampled product records that list Monosodium L-glutamate to see how the ingredient appears in actual labels. See listed products
- Place Monosodium L-glutamate next to “Apples With Calcium Ascorbate To Promote Whiteness And Maintain Texture” (or another peer) using the same FDA/CSPI and prevalence fields. Open a peer record
- Read how PlainFoodSafe joins source records before treating a screening label as a personal food or health conclusion. Read the methodology
This page describes published source classifications and product-label coverage. It is not dietary, allergy, or medical advice.
Monosodium L-glutamate — common follow-ups
Why is there no FDA/CSPI verdict on Monosodium L-glutamate? ▼
This snapshot has no FDA SAFFA status or CSPI Chemical Cuisine rating attached to Monosodium L-glutamate, so PlainFoodSafe does not present a source-backed safety verdict. The page reports catalog prevalence (#4,499 of 247,206 ingredients) and label position instead.
Which product shelves show up most often with Monosodium L-glutamate? ▼
Monosodium L-glutamate ranks in the top decile by product count (#4,499 of 247,206), appearing in 56 indexed products led by Plant-based foods and beverages. The sample list below is a slice of that footprint, not the full universe.
Why is Monosodium L-glutamate so common on ingredient lists? ▼
The source record does not name a technical effect, yet Monosodium L-glutamate appears in 56 products (#4,499 usage rank). High prevalence here describes formulation frequency, not an approved use level.
Regulatory status: FDA SAFFA (Monosodium L-glutamate). Safety ratings: CSPI Chemical Cuisine; product presence: Open Food Facts via PlainFoodSafe (September 2026). Figures are computed from those sources, no editor-typed counts. Methodology · State regulations.