 He then patented a method of mass-producing a crystalline salt of glutamic acid, monosodium glutamate.Glutamic acid is produced on the largest scale of any amino acid, with an estimated annual production of about 1.5 million tons in 2006.Chemical synthesis was supplanted by the aerobic fermentation of sugars and ammonia in the 1950s, with the organism "Corynebacterium glutamicum" (also known as "Brevibacterium flavum") being the most widely used for production.