• by Steve Ellwanger , December 8, 2020

Monosodium glutamate manufacturer Ajinomoto wants to eliminate a long-running stigma attached to MSG, with a campaign to influence U.S. consumers and assist Asian restaurants.

The “KNOW MSG” campaign—being promoted mainly on social media platforms—is designed to counter the “No MSG” wording seen on certain food packaging and restaurant menus.

“Ajinomoto was founded on the discovery of MSG in 1909, and it was sold without issue around the world for many decades until 1968, when things changed here in the U.S.,” Tia Rains, vice president of customer engagement and strategic development, Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, tells Marketing Daily.

The change occurred after “a personal account of someone going to a Chinese restaurant…reported feeling certain symptoms after eating at that restaurant that were ultimately coined Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.”

According to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, adding MSG to foods is generally recognized as safe.

“Although many people identify themselves as sensitive to MSG, in studies with such individuals given MSG or a placebo, scientists have not been able to consistently trigger reactions,” the FDA website states.

Ajinomoto’s campaign from the Edelman agency comes at a particularly critical time for Asian restaurants during the ongoing pandemic.

Those eateries have been “unfairly vilified and targeted for being associated with the Chinese roots of this virus,” says Rains.

“And so we wanted to participate in that conversation and help those businesses by encouraging people to do takeout from their local Chinese food or Asian restaurants.”

The only U.S. manufacturer of MSG, Ajinomoto will be generating awareness of KNOW MSG in the restaurant industry—to which it supplies MSG—while making KNOW MSG stickers available to all establishments.

The KNOW MSG symbol was created by Chinese-born graphic artist Zipeng Zhu, whose work includes designs for MTV’s Video Music Awards.

One of two variations of the symbol bears the words "plant-derived, backed by science, made via fermentation."

On the consumer side, the first product to feature the symbol will be launched in the spring of 2021 by Asian food brand Omsom —which markets Starters, packets of premixed spices—in a collaboration with culinary notable Pepper Teigen.

“We grew up on MSG and are so stoked to help change the xenophobic narrative surrounding the ingredient,” Omsom co-founder Kim Pham said in a news release.