As far as I know, MSG is generally cooked into food whereas chicken salt is a seasoning you add on top at the end. The single exception I’m aware of is sometimes MSG is added as a side to certain Korean dishes (you dip whatever you’re eating in the MSG). In general I don’t think it’s something you would eat in the same way you eat chicken salt, though. MSG doesn’t have the same use, it’s more about feel than taste which is why it’s usually mixed in with other things as opposed to being the main seasoning. It enhances other flavours whereas chicken salt is the main flavour.

Personally this is why I never have chicken salt if I’m eating chips with fish, because it is too strong and dominates the fish flavour. I would say the way vinegar is used in the UK, particularly on similar foods like fish and chips, is a more accurate comparison (I wouldn’t have this combination either for a similar reason).

Look up ingredients of them. You’ll see flavour enhancer 621 (msg), 627, or 631. Those others are basically msg in terms of what they do to taste perception, similar chemically.

chicken salt is salt, msg, and herbs.

MSG isn’t “some other crap”, just like table salt isn’t some other crap. They’re base ingredients, not seasoning mixes like chicken salt. In fact, monosodium glutamate and sodium chloride are already naturally found in plenty of grown foods.

Here’s the wiki page that lists some similar seasoned salts overseas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasoned_salt And like Naeva said, some (apparently even the original chicken salt recipe) already contain MSG.

Not to MSG, more like a premix taco seasoning

I suspect this shit originates with social media influencers representing companies selling flavoured salt. One company in particular likes to try and mythologize it. Many countries have seasoned salt since long before us. We mostly only put it on chips and people are split on whether they like it or not. I would prefer gravy and cheese or better still put the chips in an AB/HSP. I think it is hugely overrated. In actual cooking and other snacks we still use MSG and other sources of umami like fish sauce, soy, bouillon etc.

Nobody is putting chicken salt on their sushi, kebab or banh mi or the hundreds of other takeaway foods we eat that aren’t chips and actually taste good. Chicken salt is boring mainstream manufactured culture like the Bunnings sausage sizzle. People have been cooking and selling food for community fundraisers for generations but it took a hardware company to nudge it on social media to make it a talking point. Reddit/Facebook level shit.