Vitamin A in MSG
In response to Dr. Marius Wijajarta's Comments on protests against generic medicines' price rises published in Suara Pembaruan on June 9, 2001, I am of the opinion that to prevent xerophthalmia, every sensible health service practitioner would support the idea of giving vitamin A to children below five years of age. Mr. Marius has underestimated me by branding me as an advocate of fortifying MSG (monosodium glutamate) with vitamin A and by saying that it is an unhealthy plan devised by the Department of Health.
A couple of years back, by adopting the pattern similar to iodized salt, the Helen Keller Foundation (HKF) and the Ministry of Health launched a program to mix food products with vitamin A. Products that we had in mind at that time, among others, included: instant noodles, salt, sugar, flour and MSG.
When we proposed the idea to sugar factories, the Association of Sugar Producers at once refused to participate in our plan. Then, our choice fell on MSG. For that purpose, the head of the Research Division of the Ministry of Health (Prof.Dr.Loeddin) sent a letter to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the States to seek advice.
After getting the green light from them, the Department of Health embarked on a project to fortify MSG with vitamin A in a West Java subdistrict. The result was satisfactory. Besides preventing xerophthalmia, the MSG fortified with vitamin A also boosts the body's resistance against other illnesses.
In the USA, MSG is categorized as GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe). Annual intake of MSG in the States is 50 million kilograms, 20 million kilograms of which is locally produced. It is highly unlikely that the United States of America would allow its citizens to consume MSG if, as Mr. Marius alleges, it can make people retarded and damage the retina.
Given the project's success in the West Java subdistrict, the Ministry of Health planned on expanding the program to several provinces. They directly contacted MSG factories asking them to join in the program. Unfortunately, the offer was turned down.
A few months later, the Ministry of Health asked me to persuade the factories to participate. To my surprise, they flatly refused the offer. But then, after talking with them, I found out that they had good grounds for rejecting the idea: the vitamin stains their product. A Philippine MSG manufacturer sustained a huge loss just because consumers refused to buy their yellowish-colored products, forcing the manufacturer to withdraw their products from the market.
However, as far as I am concerned, there are three factories that have expressed their readiness to cooperate, provided that the addition of vitamin A to the MSG will not change the color of their products. HKF then used American-made vitamin A coated with titanium dioxide, but, alas, this didn't work either. Owing to this limitation, efforts to fortify MSG and other products with vitamin A seem to have not borne any fruit, and will perhaps take some time to realize.
Considering the importance of vitamin A for children under five years of age, I call on the Ministry of Health to, as soon as possible, distribute vitamin A in the form of tablets, drops or mini soft capsules via the public health centers and their subcenters. It is not necessary to include it in foodstuffs/products.
SUNARTO PRAWIROSUJANTO
Jakarta