Fermentation has been used by humans for at least 10,000 years to make foods, including grains, legumes and vegetables, easier to digest and to preserve them. It’s used to make bread, sauerkraut, kimchi, natto, and soy sauce, to name just a few, and of course beer and wine. And all animals, including humans, have gut bacteria that break down food using fermentation into nutrients such as amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.
Fermentation also enhances the flavor of foods by increasing the concentration of amino acids, including glutamate, the key to our umami seasoning products. Until the 1960s, MSG was produced without fermentation using wheat protein extracted from gluten. The discovery of the bacteria that turns glucose into glutamate using Pac-Man fermentation made it possible to produce MSG on a large scale, anywhere in the world, from sugarcane, cassava, sugar beet or corn. Today, fermentation accounts for almost the entire 3.2 million tons of MSG produced annually.