Disodium guanylate, also known as sodium 5'-guanylate and disodium 5'-guanylate, is a natural disodium

Sodium

Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal and is a member of the alkali metals; its only stable isotope is 23Na. It is an abundant element that exists in numerous minerals, most commonly as sodium chloride...

 salt of the flavor enhancer guanosine monophosphate

Guanosine monophosphate

Guanosine monophosphate, also known as 5'-guanidylic acid or guanylic acid and abbreviated GMP, is a nucleotide that is used as a monomer in RNA. It is an ester of phosphoric acid with the nucleoside guanosine. GMP consists of the phosphate group, the pentose sugar ribose, and the nucleobase...

 (GMP). Disodium guanylate is a food additive

Food additive

Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance its taste and appearance.Some additives have been used for centuries; for example, preserving food by pickling , salting, as with bacon, preserving sweets or using sulfur dioxide as in some wines...

 with the E number

E number

E numbers are number codes for food additives that have been assessed for use within the European Union . They are commonly found on food labels throughout the European Union. Safety assessment and approval are the responsibility of the European Food Safety Authority...

 E627. It is commonly used in conjunction with glutamic acid

Glutamic acid

Glutamic acid is one of the 20 proteinogenic amino acids, and its codons are GAA and GAG. It is a non-essential amino acid. The carboxylate anions and salts of glutamic acid are known as glutamates...

 (monosodium glutamate

Monosodium glutamate

Monosodium glutamate, also known as sodium glutamate or MSG, is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, one of the most abundant naturally occurring non-essential amino acids....

, MSG).

As it is a fairly expensive additive, it is not used independently of glutamic acid; if disodium guanylate is present in a list of ingredients but MSG does not appear to be, it is likely that glutamic acid is provided as part of another ingredient such as a processed soy protein

Soy protein

Soy protein is a protein that is isolated from soybean. It is made from dehulled, defatted soybean meal. Dehulled and defatted soybeans are processed into three kinds of high protein commercial products : soy flour, concentrates, and isolates. Soy protein isolate has been used since 1959 in foods ...

 complex

Protein complex

A multiprotein complex is a group of two or more associated polypeptide chains. If the different polypeptide chains contain different protein domain, the resulting multiprotein complex can have multiple catalytic functions...

. It is often added to foods in conjunction with disodium inosinate

Disodium inosinate

Disodium inosinate is the disodium salt of inosinic acid with the chemical formula C10H11N4Na2O8P. It is used as a food additive and often found in instant noodles, potato chips, and a variety of other snacks.-Use as a food additive:...

; the combination is known as disodium 5'-ribonucleotides.

Disodium guanylate is produced from dried fish or dried seaweed and is often added to instant noodles

Instant noodles

Instant noodles are dried or precooked noodles and are often sold with packets of flavoring including seasoning oil. Dried noodles are usually eaten after being cooked or soaked in boiling water for 2 to 5 minutes, while precooked noodles can be reheated or eaten straight from the packet...

, potato chips and other snack

Snack

A snack is a small portion of food eaten between meals. The food might be snack food—items like potato chips or baby carrots—but could also simply be a smaller amount of any food item.-Snacks and health:...

s, savoury rice

Rice

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

, tinned vegetables, cured meat

Meat

Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...

s, and packaged soup

Soup

Soup is a generally warm food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water, or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, forming a broth.Traditionally,...

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Nutritional Information

Disodium guanylate is not safe for babies under twelve weeks, and should generally be avoided by asthmatics and people with gout, as guanylates are metabolized to purines. However, the typical amounts found in food are generally too low to produce significant side effects. Since it is often produced from fish, vegans and vegetarians may wish to avoid it unless the product is specifically labeled as vegan or vegetarian. Such labels require the use of non-animal derived sources, such as seaweed or yeast

Yeast

Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with 1,500 species currently described estimated to be only 1% of all fungal species. Most reproduce asexually by mitosis, and many do so by an asymmetric division process called budding...

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