KDKA.com Consumer Web Extras
Oct 21, 2008 6:40 pm US/Eastern
MSG Becomes Controversial Soup Ingredient
(KDKA)
Do you know what's in your favorite soup? There's a controversial ingredient that's ignited a soup war.
It's back to basics for Campbell's with its new Select Harvest soups. M'm' good now comes MSG free.
"I really don't know much about it, but I heard its bad. I'm not sure though,"said shopper Shy Booker.
MSG is monosodium glutamate .. a flavor enhancer put in many foods, most notorious in Chinese dishes.
"I kinda try to stay away from it whenever I can," said shopper Janice Taylor.
Now MSG is the focus of an advertising war. Campbell's fired the first shot against it's rival, Progresso pointing out their added MSG.
"This is a common advertising technique, you take a point of difference for your product and you use that maybe against an inferiority in your competitors products," said Anthony Sanzio of Campbell's Soup.
Progresso says Campbell's advertising has been disingenuous and misleading.
Progresso, which also has MSG free soups, fired back highlighting all the Campbell's soups that still contain MSG.
MSG is safe according to the FDA which investigated reports that it caused adverse reactions like headaches and heart palpitations.
"It's more of a side effect or a sensitivity, so it's not an unsafe additive," said dietician Flavia Herzog.
Herzog says MSG has gotten a bad rap and that the soup companies are using scare tactics capitalizing on confusion about MSG.
"It's all about the dollar... who can actually make a product seem less healthy," said Herzog. "And make people feel like it's really a negative when, in fact, the average population is not affected by MSG at all," she continued.
Still Progresso says it will remove MSG from all its soup. Campbell's doesn't reveal it's future recipes.
By the way doctors say sodium in soup is probably more dangerous than MSG.
RELATED LINKS: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fdacmsg.html 
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