Processed
Fermentation Grade
S tier
Fermentation-grade MSG is today's default: glutamic acid grown by bacteria on a carbohydrate feedstock, then neutralised to the sodium salt and crystallised. It is how almost all culinary MSG is made, whether the bag says "fermented" or not. The crystals are clean, regular, and intensely umami without a broth smell of their own. This is the honest modern origin, not a lesser cousin of an imaginary "pure" MSG. Non-GMO and beet- or cane-based fermentations exist if the label brief needs them. A musty bag is a storage fault, not fermentation character.
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Characteristics
Preparations
Traits
History
Ikeda identified MSG; early production later moved from extraction to fermentation.
Kyowa's fermentation process made bacterial MSG the industrial standard.
Global seasoning plants switched almost entirely to fermentation-grade MSG.
Clean-label fermentations advertised feedstock (cane, beet, tapioca) on the sack.