Flavour enhancers are substances that enhance the existing taste and/or odour of a foodstuff. They are added to food for that purpose. This definition follows Annex I of Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 of the European Union.
Vietnam regulates additives through a list of permitted additives (Circular 24/2019/TT-BYT, referencing international Codex standards); a substance not on the list is not permitted in Vietnam, and that is the first tier of the Yenzo Scale — see how levels are set.
Very low risk: no concern at the levels used in food. How we score →
Fun fact. The flavour enhancer glutamate was found in a seaweed used for soup stock in Japan. The seaweed kombu has long been used to make dashi, the Japanese soup stock. In 1908 Ikeda, a professor of physical chemistry at the University of Tokyo, began to identify the active principle in kombu. He used 12 kg of dried kombu, extracted with water, and identified the principle in the same year. It was glutamate; its taste is uniquely different from the four classical basic tastes, and he termed it umami. In 1913 his pupil Kodama found that the active principle of dried bonito is 5′-inosinate. Source: Umami the Fifth Basic Taste: History of Studies on Receptor Mechanisms and Role as a Food Flavor (BioMed Research International, 2015)
According to Yenzo's additive page, E621 (monosodium glutamate, also called MSG) is common in instant noodles and their seasoning sachets, seasoning granules, snacks, sausages, canned food, sauces and bottled dipping sauces.
Labels usually write the group name with the INS number, for example “flavour enhancer (621)”. A label may also write the E code, the INS code or the name of the substance. The same substance can be written in different ways.
Yenzo does not rank codes. Some codes of this group have a page on Yenzo: E621 (monosodium glutamate), E627 (disodium guanylate), E631 (disodium inosinate), E950 (acesulfame K), E951 (aspartame). Each of them has a row in Appendix 1 of Circular 24/2019/TT-BYT with the function “chất điều vị” (flavour enhancer).
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