Flavour enhancers are commonly added to commercially produced food products (eg. frozen dinners, instant soups, snackfoods) to make them taste more 'savoury'.
The flavorenhancer is commonly added to Asian cuisine, canned vegetables, soups, and processed meats.
Made by a fermentation process using starch, beet sugar, cane sugar, or molasses, MSG is sold as a white crystal substance that resembles salt and sugar.
Other salts of glutamic acid--such as monopotassium glutamate and monoammonium glutamate--also have to be declared on labels and can't be lumped together under "spices," "natural flavoring" or other general terms.