Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP) has come into the spotlight recently. There was recall of the product from a large manufacturer of it. One of my online friends wrote an article* regarding the recall and posted the link to it on FB. (In summary, the company (Basic Food Flavors Inc) KNEW the product was contaminated with salmonella but kept shipping it.) I read it, it upset me, so I reposted it. This led to someone posting something on my wall that had me looking up HVP.
HVP contains monosodium glutamate (MSG). I had not thought about that before. Honestly I had not thought about hydrolyzed vegetable protein at all, but now I am thinking about it. I know a handful of people that have bad reactions to MSG so they avoid food with it in it. So I kind of think that they might know that HVP contains MSG and they can either avoid HVP or be — at least — mindful of it. But it is frustrating when man-made products that we don’t even know what they are contain other stuff that we are trying to be aware of. If you know you have reactions to MSG you might know that HVP contains it. But if you are having a reaction you might not know that it is due to the MSG in the HVP.
Most people don’t Google every ingredient in their food. I don’t, do you? Are we going to have to start? Are we going to have to have an “alternate name list” on our fridge and right next to that a “recalled food” list?
As an individual, I can just not eat this stuff, but why as a group do we continue to allow so many chemicals to be put in our food. When something is taken from it natural form and processed into another form can that really be good for our bodies? Especially when it is in so many foods?
For those of you that are trying to avoid MSG, you might want to keep an eye out for HVP, if you aren’t already.
According to Wiki:
Acid-hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or HVP, is produced by boiling cereals or legumes, such as soy, corn, or wheat, in hydrochloric acid and then neutralizing the solution with sodium hydroxide.
Monosodium glutamate, also known as sodium glutamate and MSG, is a sodium salt of the naturally occurring non-essential amino acid glutamic acid.
*I had a link to the article my friend had posted but the link no longer works so I removed it. Here is a link to a Washington Post article regarding Basic Food Flavors knowing they shipped a product containing salmonella: FDA says Basic Food Flavors knew plant was contaminated with salmonella March 10, 2010
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