Ajinomoto
味の素
Business focus
Food, Beverage & Catering
Description
Ajinomoto was founded in 1909 by brothers Saburosuke and Chuji Suzuki, building on chemist Kikunae Ikeda's 1908 discovery that monosodium glutamate extracted from kombu broth produced the umami taste. Its AJI-NO-MOTO seasoning became the world's first commercial umami additive, and the company opened a New York office as early as 1917. Today the Ajinomoto Group operates as a global AminoScience platform spanning food, pharma and cosmetics.