Glutamic acid (E620): What the Sources Found

Glutamic acid is the flavour enhancer the food industry lists as E620. In our table it is high risk: it takes 30 of the 33 additive points off a product's score for a child.

In short

High risk. 30 of the 33 additive points come off a product that carries it.
Flagged for young children. Set only where EFSA’s own exposure assessment shows toddlers or children exceeding or approaching the ADI, or where a regulator used explicitly child-specific language. For a child under 6 it moves one class up.
3 citations from EFSA, FDA, each one below.

What Glutamic acid does to a score

A packaged food starts with 33 points for what is in its ingredient list. Glutamic acid takes 30 of the 33 additive points off a product's score, and a child under 6 sees it one class higher again. Scan the pack in Sito and the score you get is the one for your own child's age, with this additive named in the reasons. How we score has the whole method.

What the sources found

Every classification in our table comes from the citations below, and nothing else. They are quoted as the source wrote them.

EFSA Journal 2017;15(7):4910, doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4910 (PMC7009848)
Group ADI of 30 mg/kg bw/day expressed as glutamic acid for E 620–625 — i.e. E 620 is the substance the group ADI is expressed in terms of — derived from a NOAEL of 3,200 mg MSG/kg bw/day in a neurodevelopmental toxicity study with a default 100-fold uncertainty factor.
EFSA Journal 2017;15(7):4910, exposure assessment section (PMC7009848)
In the refined non-brand-loyal scenario the MEAN exposure in toddlers and children exceeded the group ADI and the dose associated with the MSG symptom complex (>42.9 mg/kg bw/day); at the 95th percentile, exposure in infants, toddlers and children exceeded doses associated with adverse effects in humans.
FDA 21 CFR §182.1045 (glutamic acid, GRAS); cross-cited at 21 CFR §172.320 (amino acids)
'This substance is generally recognized as safe when used as a salt substitute in accordance with good manufacturing practice.' Separately permitted under §172.320 as a nutrient to improve protein quality. US regulatory status is clean — the child concern is the EU exposure assessment, not a US restriction.

Why this class

IARC Group 1 or 2A with a dietary exposure route; or EFSA has withdrawn or negated a safety conclusion; or EFSA’s own exposure assessment finds a child age group exceeding the ADI at mean intake; or the substance is banned or formally being phased out for food use by the EU, by the US FDA, or under a US state law.

Our confidence in this row's classification is high. Medium or low does not mean the evidence is weak; it means something about the row is still being pinned down, usually a regulatory status confirmed from one source rather than two.