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What's in a name? Umami firm's future in balance as 'Honest' brand row rages
The Observer
|August 24, 2025
When Honest Umami launched last year, selling a range of MSG-based seasonings, its plan was to upend the market. Now the brand is facing a trademark dispute that co-founder Rob Miller has called "existential": the Honest Burgers restaurant chain, which has 39 sites nationwide, is objecting to the use of “honest”, a term it has trademarked.
Monosodium glutamate, a flavour enhancer with a chequered reputation, is used in a wide variety of products, often hidden behind terms such as "hydrolysed vegetable protein" or the flavouring E621. According to Miller, Honest Umami is challenging the "historical, nonsensical, and inescapably racist reasons" for MSG's poor reputation. But it's now in jeopardy.
Not being able to use the word "honest "would set us back to square one," Miller told The Observer, adding that costs for lawyers and relabelling packaging would be unaffordable. "I don't know whether we would just jack it in at that point."
This story is from the August 24, 2025 edition of The Observer.
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