To answer the 'gyoza sticks' claim, Ajinomoto published 3,520 burnt pans as open 3D data

the problem

Customers tweeted Ajinomoto's frozen gyoza stuck to the pan, threatening its most-sold product

background

what everyone would do

Every obvious move leans on a persuasive claim and is therefore beatable by one more claim: issue a press apology insisting the product works if prepared right, push influencers to demonstrate the 'correct' technique, or quietly rehire the line and hope the story dies. All of them hand the accuser the last word — a retina-burn photo of a food that clearly did not work on camera.

what they saw

A truthful-sounding complaint is not an attack to rebut but raw R&D data: soliciting and publishing the physical evidence of failure converts a reputational threat into a credible proof no marketing claim can match.

the move

Ajinomoto apologised, then asked customers with the same problem to mail in the pans where the gyoza burned. It collected 3,520 frying pans from across the country, 3D-scanned them with industrial equipment, and published every pan as a full 3D model in an open digital archive on its website — a transparent 'research in progress' report the public could rotate and inspect. The resulting pan data fed R&D: in February 2024 Ajinomoto launched a renewed gyoza engineered to stick less and cook with crispy 'wings' in any pan.

why it works

The viral claim's power came from looking true. By asking the accusers to mail their pans, Ajinomoto turned detractors into contributors to its own research, so the story stopped being 'brand vs customer' and became 'brand and customers investigating together'. Publishing 3,520 real 3D-scanned pans made the process transparent enough to be believed — showing not telling — and the collected evidence, not a rebuttal, exposed the true cooking variables. Because the feedback loop was public and the dataset was real, the eventual improved gyoza carried proof of origin, which rebuilt trust more durably than any counter-claim, and the R&D actually made the product better, satisfying the complaint rather than denying it.

the payoff

The study fed a real fix: independent press confirmed the less-sticky gyoza launched Feb 2024; sales/award claims are self-reported.

where it breaks

It fails where the product cannot be verifiably improved and the evidence handed back is incriminating: if enough valid pans really were to blame, or if the defect is environmental and unfixable, publishing the measurement legitimises the complaint instead of answering it. It needs customers' inputs to come cheap (postage here), an R&D pipeline that can actually respond, and a brand with enough margin to survive the exposing months between apology and fix. And it only pays when the failure is genuine: apologising then publishing would destroy the credibility it exists to build.

what came after

What began as a single complaint became a public R&D operation: the company treated failure data as an open asset rather than a liability, publishing the physical specimens of criticism and rebuilding the flagship product from them — later finishing as a PR Grand Prix winner at ADFEST 2024.

references

1. [1]ITmedia — Ajinomoto publishes 3,520 pans where gyoza burn as 3D dataITmedia, 2023itmedia.co.jp
2. [2]Impress Watch — Ajinomoto further improves the gyoza that sticks in pans (notes the 3,520 pan collection and Feb 2024 release)Watch Impress, 2024gourmet.watch.impress.co.jp

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