"It's ridiculous for the United States to make a false countercharge," said Ma, who said different countries were confronted with different situations, and the government should not interfere in free international trade.

Aside from that, Lotus MSG was accused of receiving government subsidies to keep it running. Reviewing its development course, Lotus MSG indeed won a 2-million-yuan ($328,200) government subsidy, but it was mainly used to pay debts and support its restructuring, rather than igniting unfair competition, said the association.

Shi Zujian, Board Secretary of Lotus MSG, suggested that once anti-dumping and countervailing duties were imposed, the company would find food flavoring factories in Southeast Asia to undertake its production and re-export its products to the U.S. market.

In 1989, Wu Yunchu established Tianchu Sodium Glutamat Factory in Shanghai, breaking the monopoly of China's food flavoring industry by Ajinomoto Corp.

However, as people's dietary habits has kept changing over the past two decades, the once indispensable condiment has lost favor with Chinese housewives.

"Now, chicken powder is my first choice, because it makes the food more delicious and will not generate hazardous substance under high temperature," said Hu Yumei, a housewife in Beijing, who claimed that she had quit MSG for years.

Industry challenged

Chen Yingying, an analyst of the MSG sector, noted that the food additive industry had contracted by 30 percent as a result of restraining the three public expenses.

As Henan Lotus Flower Gourmet Powder Co. Ltd. explained that constantly improving living standard spurred the emergence of new condiments, which had stolen a large slice of the traditional food flavoring market.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, among the 19 industries which have to close down outdated production facilities in 2013, the MSG sector saw production capacity increase by 142,000 tons, up 99.3 percent.

Squeezed by a disadvantageous overseas trade environment and sluggish domestic demand, many small MSG factories have been driven to the brink of bankruptcy. According to Sublime China Information Co. Ltd., a portal for commodities information, most small manufacturers south of Yangtze River have been shut down, and less than 50 percent of producers in Shandong Province is in operation.

In the trade, the major cost factors are corn and coal. It needs 2.5 tons of coal and 2.5 tons of corn to produce 1 ton of MSG. "To survive, manufacturers tend to locate their production bases in areas of abundant grain and energy resources to reduce production and transportation costs," said food processing analyst Liao Liang.

As main grain-producing areas are not located in east China, hordes of MSG factories have moved to the western region.

In addition, food flavoring factories also face challenges from environmental pollution. As early as 1997, Lotus MSG spent 150 million yuan ($24.62 million) in controlling pollution, but little has changed.

According to Liao, there were more than 200 food-flavoring manufacturers in the 1990s, but only a dozen of them are still running now.

"It will cost manufacturers an arm and a leg to purchase a set of high-quality waste water treatment equipment, which can reach environmental requirements. In the context of cutting backward production capacity, small and medium-sized producers, most of which are depressed by a tight budget, are the first to bear the brunt," said Liao.

Aside from domestic challenges, China's food-flavoring industry is also threatened by a converging attack. Xu noted that the European Union had begun to levy an anti-dumping duty on imports of food-flavoring powders from China in 2008.

"With the anti-dumping and countervailing measures taken by the United States, other countries may follow suit."

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