MSG Substitutes: Glutamate-Rich Ingredients, Ranked by the Job MSG Is Doing

Out of MSG? The thing it brings is probably already in your kitchen. MSG supplies glutamate, the compound behind the savory taste called umami, and FDA notes that the free glutamate in foods like tomatoes and cheeses is chemically the same as the glutamate in MSG.¹ Parmesan and soy sauce carry far more of it than beef does, and broth, kombu, dried mushrooms, anchovies and tomato paste all bring it too. What changes is everything else each one brings along, like salt, liquid, color and its own flavor, so the best pick depends on what MSG is doing in your recipe.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
• Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

The amounts from America’s Test Kitchen below are its suggested quantities for building savory flavor, not tested equivalents of a given amount of MSG. For scale, FDA says a typical serving of food with added MSG contains less than 0.5 grams.¹

Why these substitutes work

Umami is a savory or meaty taste produced by three natural substances: glutamate, guanylate and inosinate. It’s glutamate in its free form, not bound up in protein, that enhances flavor, Food Standards Australia New Zealand notes.² So free glutamate is what to look at, and it varies enormously from food to food. Here are the FSANZ figures tabulated by Germany’s Senate Commission on Food Safety, per 100 grams:³

These are single tabulated values from a 2003 report, not a survey of today’s products, and the soy sauce range covers different styles. They do show the scale: Parmesan and soy sauce carry far more free glutamate than meat itself.

The other two umami compounds matter too. America’s Test Kitchen says that when glutamate and the nucleotides inosinate and guanylate are present in equal amounts, umami can be as much as 20 to 30 times greater than with glutamate alone, and it suggests combining the two. Its examples: dashi pairs kombu (glutamate) with katsuobushi (nucleotides), and a Caesar salad pairs anchovies with Parmigiano-Reggiano.⁴ That’s a test kitchen’s explanation, not a measurement we could check, but it’s a practical reason to use two substitutes together.

If MSG is adding savory depth to a soup, stew or braise

1. Broth or stock

America’s Test Kitchen calls beef broth rich in umami-enhancing compounds, and notes that chicken broth is lower in glutamates.⁵

Ratio (Method): Swap some or all of the recipe’s water for broth, then taste before you salt, since broth may already be salted. Bouillon cubes work the same way; NDSU Extension’s standard is 1 cube dissolved in 1 cup of boiling water for a cup of broth.⁶ Read the label. FDA notes that ingredients like hydrolyzed vegetable protein, autolyzed yeast, yeast extract and soy extracts naturally contain free glutamate,¹ and FDA requires added MSG itself to be listed by name, not hidden under “spices and flavoring.”

2. Kombu

ATK names kombu among the foods naturally high in glutamate.⁴

Ratio (Attributed, a use amount): ATK suggests steeping a 4-inch piece of kombu in a batch of lentil soup.⁵ Take it out before serving.

3. Dried mushrooms

ATK says dried mushrooms deliver the most umami because they’re concentrated, and uses dried porcini or shiitake in longer-cooking dishes.⁵

Ratio (Method): Simmer a few dried mushroom pieces in the liquid, or grind them to a powder and add a little at a time.

If MSG is seasoning a stir-fry, fried rice or marinade

Soy sauce

Soy sauce tastes mainly salty and umami, with sour, bitter and sweet notes. Its free glutamate in the FSANZ table, 0.4 to 1.3 g per 100 g, depends on the style.³

Ratio (Method): Add soy sauce a teaspoon at a time and cut the recipe’s salt as you go, because soy sauce carries a lot of salt. Fish sauce works the same way in Southeast Asian dishes; ATK calls it a highly concentrated liquid that adds salty complexity to dishes like pad thai.⁵ Start with less than you’d use of soy sauce.

If MSG is a dry, savory sprinkle

For eggs, popcorn, roasted vegetables or a dry rub, you need something dry.

• Finely grated Parmesan. Among cheeses, ATK says, aged Parmesan is unparalleled for umami.⁵ It also brings salt, fat and its own nutty flavor, so it fits Italian and other European dishes better than a Chinese stir-fry.
• Soy sauce powder. Kikkoman makes a spray-dried powder from brewed soy sauce, with maltodextrin and salt.⁷ See soy sauce powder.
• Ground dried mushrooms, as above.

Ratio (Method): Add a pinch at a time and taste. Each one brings salt or a flavor of its own long before it matches MSG’s savoriness.

If MSG is building a meaty base

• Anchovies. ATK says preserved anchovies are packed with glutamates and calls them a big hit of nucleotides.⁴⁵ Ratio (Attributed, a use amount): sauté 2 minced anchovies with the onions for a stew made with 3 to 4 pounds of meat.⁵ They’ll add some saltiness, so taste before adding more salt.
• Tomato paste. Tomatoes are among the foods with natural free glutamate, and ATK turns to ultraconcentrated tomato paste again and again to build umami, cooking it with the onions for 1 to 2 minutes until it darkens.⁵ Ratio (Method): start with a tablespoon in a pot of sauce or stew. It adds color and sweetness too.
• Marmite. ATK says Marmite has nearly twice the umami-producing glutamates of anything else on its list of umami ingredients. Ratio (Attributed, a use amount): go light, 1/4 teaspoon per serving.⁵
• Worcestershire sauce. ATK describes it as glutamate-rich and salty, with anchovies among its ingredients.⁵ Ratio (Method): a few dashes, then taste.

What isn’t known

• We found no measurement of free glutamate in homemade stock or bouillon, and no evidence that reducing a stock raises its glutamate by any particular amount. You’ll often hear that beef bones are an especially good source of glutamate; none of the sources we reviewed supports that.
• The glutamate figures above come from one 2003 regulatory table and aren’t specific to today’s brands.

Related

• Monosodium glutamate (MSG), MSG vs. salt and cooking with MSG
• Soy sauce powder and too much soy sauce? how to fix the dish
• Mushroom spices

Footnotes

1. Questions and Answers on Monosodium glutamate (MSG), U.S. Food and Drug Administration. fda.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Monosodium Glutamate: A Safety Assessment, Food Standards Australia New Zealand, 2003. foodstandards.gov.au · Regulator ↩

3. The potential involvement of glutamate ingestion in chronic neurodegenerative diseases, DFG Senate Commission on Food Safety (SKLM), 2005; tabulating FSANZ 2003. dfg.de · Regulator ↩ ↩²

4. Souza and Vaughn, How to Use Science to Boost Umami, America’s Test Kitchen, 2022. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Getting to Know: Umami Powerhouses, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

6. Julie Garden-Robinson, Ingredient Substitutions (FN198), NDSU Extension, 2018. ksre.ksu.edu · Reference work ↩

7. Dehydrated Soy Sauce SN-1, Kikkoman Sales USA. kikkomanusa.com · Merchant ↩

Also drawn on

• Umami (revised by Meg Matthias; last updated 18 Sep 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
• Multivariate Analysis of Key Taste Compounds in Soy Sauce and Model Construction for Its Saltiness Intensity (Li et al., Foods 14(24):4182, 2025), Foods (MDPI). mdpi.com