Monosodium glutamate, or MSG — a food additive that is often found in Asian cuisine — has had something of a negative reputation over the last 60 years. Some food experts insist that's unfair.

For Asian Americans who grew up in the heyday of AZN Pride, the reclamation of MSG has been a major project of the past dozen years, championed by chefs like David Chang and Anthony Bourdain, and food ...

Monosodium glutamate, or MSG, is a common ingredient across Asian cuisines. But its history is riddled with false health claims and misinformation. Photograph by Penchan Pumila / Alamy Stock Photo.

To be clear, we’re not talking about MSG in hot dogs, mustard, ketchup, pepperoni or Cool Ranch Doritos. Those are fixtures in the snackdom of Americana and cause only joy through its powdery magic.

However, public commotion in the 1960s over one particular ingredient, MSG, increasingly plagued these eateries and exacerbated xenophobic estrangement of Asian communities, according to CNN.

“A lot of Asian chefs have been using MSG in their cooking quietly, because there is this stigma,” says Dan Q. Dao, founder of the food consulting agency District One.

In many Asian countries, MSG is viewed as a standard cooking ingredient, no more controversial than salt or sugar in Western kitchens. This cultural divide has led to significant double standards ...

MSG is an often misunderstood spice that should be utilized more frequently in cooking. Here's why MSG deserves a spot in your seasoning cabinet.

“Often when customers would see I’m of Asian descent, they would automatically ask me if there was MSG in the food. It still happens a lot, because, like, there’s still a lot of people out ...