We consider the inverse problem of determining a general semilinear term appearing in nonlinear parabolic equations. For this purpose, we derive a new criterion that allows to prove global recovery of some general class of semilinear terms from lateral boundary measurements of solutions of the equation with initial condition fixed at zero. More precisely, we prove, for what seems to be the first time, the unique and stable recovery of general semilinear terms depending on time and space variables independently of the solution of the nonlinear equation from the knowledge of the parabolic Dirichlet-to-Neumann map associated with the solution of the equation with initial condition fixed at zero. Our approach is based on the second linearization of the inverse problem under consideration.