Ajinomoto Food Seasoning 1kg Per Packet.
What is AJI-NO-MOTO®?
A popular seasoning and flavor enhancer, AJI-NO-MOTO®, an MSG (monosodium glutamate) product, is the purest form of umami, the fifth taste, altogether different from sweet, salty, sour and bitter. AJI-NO-MOTO® is widely used to intensify and enhance umami flavors in sauces, broths, soups and many more foods. It can also be considered a healthy alternative to table salt, containing just one-third the sodium. AJI-NO-MOTO® is used around the world to bring out the delicious flavor of foods.
What is AJI-NO-MOTO® made of?
AJI-NO-MOTO®, monosodium glutamate, is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, one of the most common naturally occurring amino acids. Glutamic acid is produced in abundance in our bodies and found in many foods we eat every day, including meat, fish, eggs and dairy products, as well as tomatoes, corn and nuts. The proteins that make up about 20% of our body weight are made up of amino acids such as glutamic acid. Glutamic acid constitutes about 2% of our human body weight. When a protein containing glutamic acid is broken down, for example through fermentation, it becomes glutamate. Glutamate activates our taste receptors, eliciting the delicious savory taste known as umami. AJI-NO-MOTO® doesn’t taste salty and salt is not used in making it. The sodium in AJI-NO-MOTO® is sodium glutamate and sodium ribonucleotide, not salt (NaCl).
How is AJI-NO-MOTO® made?
AJI-NO-MOTO® is produced through the fermentation of plant-based ingredients such as sugar cane, sugar beets, cassava or corn.
One evening over dinner in 1908, one of the Ajinomoto Group’s founders, biochemist Dr. Kikunae Ikeda asked his wife a question that would change the history of food: What gave her vegetable and tofu soup its delicious meaty flavor? Mrs. Ikeda pointed to the dried seaweed called kombu, or kelp, that she used to make her traditional Japanese dashi, or broth. Inspired by this revelation, Dr. Ikeda set to work. Evaporating and treating his wife’s kombu broth, he was able to extract a crystalline compound, which turned out to be glutamic acid. Tasting the crystals, he recognized a distinct savory flavor he dubbed umami, based on the Japanese word umai (delicious). Dr. Ikeda filed a patent in 1909 to produce the world’s first umami seasoning: AJI-NO-MOTO®. The following year, the Ajinomoto Group AJI-NO-MOTO® was launched in the Japanese market. At first it was produced through the hydrolysis of gluten to extract wheat protein. Then in the 1930s there was a shift to extracting AJI-NO-MOTO® from soy beans. In the 1960s production moved to the bacterial fermentation of sugar cane and similar crops in a process much like the way cheese, yogurt and wine are produced.
How does the fermentation process work?
Fermentation has been used by humans for centuries as a way to preserve foods and enhance their taste. Fermentation is used to make foods including grains, legumes and vegetables easier to digest and to preserve them. It’s also used to make bread, sauerkraut, kimchi, natto, and soy sauce, and of course beer and wine.