Ajinomoto

Ajinomoto

Type	Public
Traded as	TYO: 2802 JASDAQ: 2802
Industry	Food industry
Founded	1917 (as S. Suzuki & Co. Ltd.)
Headquarters	Chūō, Tokyo, Japan
Key people	Masatoshi Ito (President & Chief Executive Officer)
Products	seasonings, cooking oils, TV dinners, sweeteners, amino acids and pharmaceuticals
Website	Ajinomoto Group

Ajinomoto headquarters in Tokyo, Japan

Ajinomoto Co. Inc. (味の素株式会社, Ajinomoto Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese food and chemical corporation which produces seasonings, cooking oils, TV dinners, sweeteners, amino acids and pharmaceuticals. In particular it is the world's largest producer of aspartame, with a 40% global market share.

The literal translation of Aji no Moto is “Essence of Taste,” used as a trademark for the company’s original monosodium glutamate (MSG) product.

Its head office is located in Chūō, Tokyo.

Ajinomoto operates in 100 countries, employing around 24,861 people as of 2004. Its yearly revenue stands at around US$9 billion^{[citation needed]}.

Products

Ajinomoto products

Monosodium glutamate

Ajinomoto’s main product, monosodium glutamate (MSG; グルタミン酸ナトリウム) seasoning, was first marketed in Japan in 1909, having been discovered and patented by Kikunae Ikeda. He found that the most important compound within seaweed broth for common use was actually a glutamate salt, which he identified with the taste umami, a word meaning 'pleasant taste' or 'savoriness'. As the simplest such salt for human consumption, the popularity of MSG helped the company rapidly expand to other countries, with Ajinomoto U.S.A., Inc. established in 1956.^{[citation needed]}

Before the eventual publicity, the conglomerate was founded on Ikeda's work: it was the first to suggest that industrially purified glutamic acid salts, residues or analogues, originally found in seaweed or dried fish-based broth, might have a characteristic taste of its own. That idea was rapidly connected to the much older Japanese, culinary term of umami. This led to early adoption of MSG as a culinary agent in Japan.

Aspartame

Ajinomoto is the world's largest manufacturer of aspartame, sold under the trade name Aminosweet. It acquired its aspartame business in 2000 from Monsanto for $67M.

Glutamine

Ajinomoto is supplies the amino acid L-Glutamine.^{[citation needed]}

Controversy

In early 2001, Ajinomoto was involved in a scandal in majority-Muslim Indonesia when it emerged that a pork-based enzyme had been used in its production of MSG.

Lysine price-fixing conspiracy

Ajinomoto was a member of the Lysine price fixing cartel in the mid-1990s. Along with Kyowa Hakko Kogyo, and Sewon America Inc., Ajinomoto settled with the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division in September 1996. Each firm and one executive from each pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain to aid in further investigation. Their cooperation led to Archer Daniels Midland settling charges with the US Government in October 1996 for $100 million, a record antitrust fine at the time. The cartel had been able to raise Lysine prices 70% within their first six months of cooperation.

Lawsuit against supermarket chain Asda

In 2008, Ajinomoto sued British supermarket chain Asda, part of Wal-Mart, for a malicious falsehood action concerning its aspartame product when the chemical was listed as excluded from the chain's product line along with other "nasties". In July 2009, a British court found in favour of Asda. In June 2010, an appeal court reversed the decision, allowing Ajinomoto to pursue a case against Asda to protect aspartame's reputation. At that time, Asda said that it would continue to use the term "no nasties" on its own-label products, however, the suit was settled out of court in 2011 after Asda removed references to aspartame from its packaging.

Trademarks and personnel

AJI-NO-MOTO is registered as a trademark in Indonesia and Thailand.^{[citation needed]}

Ajinomoto’s chairman, Kunio Egashira, died on April 7, 2008. He had been chairman of the company since June 2005. Egashira had previously served as the company's president from June 1997.

Subsidiaries

• Ajinomoto USA, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ajinomoto Co., Inc. Includes Ajinomoto North America LLC that provides amino acid products and services to a number of manufacturing and research industries.

• In the UK, it is produced through Britannia Pharmaceuticals Limited, a UK-based subsidiary.^{[citation needed]}

• On January 13, 2006, the company bought the cooking sauce and condiments manufacturer Amoy Food Limited previously owned by French dairy product company Danone.

• Ajinomoto Food Ingredients LLC produces Aspartame.

• Calpis

• OmniChem NaturalSpecialities is specializing in the tannin production.

See also

• Ajinomoto Stadium
• Calpis
• Monosodium glutamate
• Motoko-chan no Wonder Kitchen, a mid-1990s Super Famicom video game that advertises the company's then-current products

External links

• Ajinomoto Group - Global
• Ajinomoto - English