AJINOMOTO

1. Context

The Delhi High court halted the release of a film titled Ajinomoto after a Japan–based seasoning manufacturer claimed infringement of its 113-year-old registered trademark AJI-NO-MOTO, which is primarily used for its product, monosodium glutamate.

2. Monosodium Glutamate

Glutamate is one of the most common amino acids in food and the human body. with a dash of sodium; it became Monosodium Glutamate (MSG).

3. Origins of MSG

• In 1908, Kikunae Ikeda, a chemistry professor at Tokyo’s Imperial University, reached out to a pharmaceutical firm, Suzuki Pharmaceutical, for help in commercializing a food additive that he had been researching, Ikeda had been inquiring about the reason for the distinctive flavour of Kelp, an alga.
• While savouring a bowl of tofu in a broth made from kelp, he became convinced there was another basic taste, different from sweet, salty, sour, and bitter.
• He called it umami, playing on the Japanese word for delicious. Ikeda's studies led him to glutamate, one of the most common amino acids in food.

4. Ajinomoto

• The patent office gave its approval to Ajinomoto a seasoning made by breaking down wheat with hydrochloric acid.
• The name was chosen by Saburosuke Suzuki, the then-head of Suzuki Pharma.

4.1 Ajinomoto Goes Global

• Japanese immigrants took Ajinomoto to Hawaii and the Chinese diasporas took it to North America.
• In 1938 makers of canned soups Campbell Soup began using MSG as a flavour enhancer.

4.2 Popularity of Ajinomoto

• The key to Ajinomoto lay in repackaging its product in different ways.
• Another spurt of popularity came when American soldiers posted in Japan during the Second World War returned home.
• This was also the time when the American military was trying to find ways to improve the taste of the soldiers’ bland food rations.
• The new fields of frozen foods were another propitious avenue for flavour enhancers.

4.3 Doubts Over Safety

• In the late 1960 s, especially in the US, consumer trust in food products with chemicals broke down.
• A large number of food safety and environmental movements were witnessed.
• Inadvertently they coalesced with some racist inclinations symptoms such as numbness and a fast heartbeat often came to be referred to as the Chinese restaurant syndrome.

For Prelims & Mains

Source: Indian Express