Ajinomoto Park, the official X (formerly Twitter) account for Japanese food giant Ajinomoto’s recipe platform, is facing backlash after posting what appeared to be an AI-generated image of its own “Hondashi” dashi seasoning that mangled the product’s packaging and text beyond recognition.
The account shared the image on August 14, 2026, as part of a post suggesting a homemade substitute for mentsuyu (Japanese noodle soup base) using ingredients on hand. Alongside recipe photos, the post included a picture of the Hondashi bottle. Users who zoomed in soon noticed that nearly every piece of text on the label was garbled or nonsensical, the measuring cup in the background showed two overlapping “100ml” markings, and the product’s brand name itself was rendered incorrectly, with some screenshots appearing to read “AINOMOTO” or “MONDASHI” instead of Ajinomoto and Hondashi.
The image quickly circulated on X, with commenters questioning why a company would use AI to generate a picture of a product it could simply photograph. Critics argued that mangling a company’s own logo and packaging undermines the work of the designers who created it, and some suggested the distorted image had become different enough from the real product that Ajinomoto could no longer claim copyright over it if it were reposted elsewhere. Others said the incident risks damaging consumer trust, arguing that letting an obviously flawed AI image go out under an official account signals carelessness about the brand.
Who is Ajinomoto Park?
Ajinomoto Park is the official recipe and product information website and social media presence run by Ajinomoto Co., the Japanese food and seasoning company best known worldwide for MSG and its Hondashi bonito-based dashi stock. The Ajinomoto Park X account regularly posts recipes using Ajinomoto products along with product tips and highlights from fan posts, and states it does not follow back its followers.
As of this writing, Ajinomoto has not issued a public statement addressing the AI-generated image or the criticism it has drawn.
Author’s Comment
Somewhere in Ajinomoto’s Tokyo headquarters there is a warehouse literally full of the actual product, and yet somebody decided a robot’s fever dream of a bottle was the better call. I get that everyone’s under pressure to look ‘innovative’ with AI right now, but there’s a difference between using it well and using it because nobody bothered to check the output before hitting post. Japanese consumers are famously detail-oriented, you do not get away with sloppy packaging text here, generated or not. My honest read: this isn’t really an AI scandal, it’s a proofreading scandal that happened to involve AI. Somebody, please, just take a photo of the bottle next time.
