MSG

Is MSG healthy? Does it cause headaches? MSG is probably one of the most debated ingredients in Asian cooking. MSG caused so much controversies that in the 1990’s, the FDA commissioned a study to examine the safety of MSG. Today, the FDA requires that foods containing added MSG list it in the ingredient panel on the packaging as monosodium glutamate, but MSG that occurs naturally in ingredients such as hydrolyzed vegetable protein, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed yeast, yeast extract, soy extracts, and protein isolate, as well as in tomatoes and cheeses do not have to be listed.

Because of the naturally occurring MSG in many products and ingredients, we cannot say that Anise is totally MSG free (we don’t believe that any restaurant is totally MSG free for that matter). What we can say is that at Anise®, we have made the decision to keep out of the MSG debate totally by not utilizing nor adding MSG during both our food preparation and cooking process.