Bozhinova S. and Ilieva Y.

Project title: MSG: what, where and why

Monosodium glutamate (MSG), which is used to enhance flavor in food, is an addictive substance. Even though it is a non-essential amino acid, it is found in most foods. The goal of our project was to explore the use of MSG in food and its effects. Initially, we wanted to prepare samples of savoury muffins (half of which contain MSG) and give them out to our classmates at the science fair and also prior to that and see whether they would notice a difference between them. Since the situation got complicated with the COVID-19 global pandemic, and our school closed down, we decided to do the experiment with our families. We both made muffins using the same recipe and asked them to do a taste test. We filmed their reactions, but due to technical difficulties we couldn’t edit the video, so we have showcased the results in the table below. Nobody, except our mothers noticed a difference in the taste of the muffins. The two of them had pretty similar answers when we asked what the difference was - they found the muffins containing MSG having a richer taste and texture. It was a very interesting topic to explore, and we are more educated in this area after doing this experiment.

Participant name

Did they guess correctly?

What was the difference if any?

Did they develop any of the Chinese syndrome symptoms?

• Ilina Ilieva - no - no difference - no

• Tereza Ilieva - yes - described it as having a richer taste than the other - no

• Petko Iliev - no - no difference - no

• Svetla Bozhinova - yes - described it as having a different texture - Had a headache (not sure if caused by MSG)

• George Bojinov - no - no difference - no

• Boris Bozhinov - no - no difference - no