Yonks ago, I bought a large canister of Bahia brand monosodium glutamate. Now it’s gone, and being in my 70’s, I don’t need a container that size again. In three different Boston area supermarket chains, there was no Bahia MSG in ANY size, no Accent brand, no other brand. I ended up paying a high price for a standard size Accent, on Amazon.
Scientific research says MSG has no deleterious effects. Are there bans on it, or was there so little demand that stores just stopped offering it?
No ban, it’s easily found in Asian grocery stores. Have not looked for it elsewhere. I rarely use mine, so I haven’t noticed it at the major supermarket chains.
I have a small bag in stock, I purchased it off of ebay. I use it in various dishes from time to time.
It was reasonably priced and showed up in a couple of days.
I just checked… you can get a pound (shipped) for $10-$12.
Get thee to an Asian grocer. MSG abounds.
I bought a fairly big bag last month at H-Mart. Way more than I needed but it was only 3.99 on sale. I offloaded some smaller jars on my local Buy Nothing group.
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Not sure where you are in the Boston area, or which grocery stores you visited, but PriceRite has it listed on their website
Thanks. I’m not aware of Price-Rite in my area, and won’t need to buy it again. I was just curious, because I am certain that the absence is a recent thing.
If you’re (or anyone else) ever in the market 
it again, you can look for this 70g/2.5oz bottle of Ajinomoto. The man who founded the company discovered MSG and now the name “Ajinomoto” is synonymous with MSG and is often just used to mean MSG itself. It’s very inexpensive and as others have easily found in Asian markets and elsewhere.
By chance I know the grandson of the man who invented Ajinomoto.
An amazing coincidence!
Speaking of Accent…it’s made by International Minerals and Chemical Corporation. (IMC) Same as the makers of this brand of MSG. 10 lb canister, from my grandmother’s restaurant from the 40s and 50s. When my uncle passed away, found this with some small hand tools in it.
LOVE it!
The Chinese characters (many, but not all of which Japanese uses as well) are wonderful! The ones above “international”, “国際” do indeed say “international” and the brand name “mei-wei-fen” translates as “beautiful” (美), “flavor” (味) and “powder” (粉)…but in Japanese would be read as “bimifun”. The word “delicious” in Japanese is “oishii” (美味しい) or occasionally “bimi” (美味).
And “Manufactured by Amino Products” is also good because MSG is a type of amino acid and in Japanese MSG is generally listed as “アミノ酸” (“aminosan”) or “化学調味料” (“kagakuchomiryo”). If one is looking for products without MSG (and no, I’m not promoting those), look for “無化学調味料” (mukagakuchomiryo) or “無添加” (“mutenka” which actually translates to “additive-free”). By the way, Kura Zushi, a conveyor belt sushi chain in Japan and elsewhere, is well-known for having sushi which is additive-free (again, this is just FYI and not an endorsement from me.)
I got what I’m sure will be a lifetime supply, maybe a pound, at a Japanese food store here in Berkeley. But yes, I looked for it in supermarkets and it wasn’t there, not even Accent.
My brother keeps telling me using MSG might actually cut down on total sodium…as this article suggests.
Interesting. I need to watch my sodium intake, but I never thought that Chinese Restaurant Syndrome was an actual concern, although I did see “prepared without MSG” on the menus of a fair amount of Chinese restaurants I visited eons ago in my wayward youth.
