Kikunae Ikeda
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Kikunae Ikeda was a Japanese chemist and Tokyo Imperial University professor of chemistry who, in 1908, uncovered the chemical basis of a taste he named umami. It is one of the five basic tastes along
Kikunae Ikeda
Ajinomoto
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Ajinomoto Co., Inc. is a Japanese multinational food and biotechnology corporation which produces seasonings, cooking oils, frozen foods, beverages, sweeteners, amino acids, insulating films, and phar
Kikunae Ikeda
…which conveyed the characteristic flavor. The chemical monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the chemical basis for the umami flavor. He chose to call it Ajinomoto (味の素; "essence of flavor"). By 1909 he had developed a process for mass-producing MSG. He was able to extract MSG from wheat and defatted soybean, and…
Headquarters in Tokyo, since 2026
Suzuki Saburōsuke II, founder of Ajinomoto
The original AJI-NO-MOTO (1909)
Oil painting of the Kawasaki factory from the 1910s