See our top 10 most read Japan stories of 2020, featuring additive labelling, plant-based stance and recycling efforts.
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See our top 10 most read Japan stories of 2020, featuring additive labelling, plant-based stance and recycling efforts.
Japan banned the use of the terms ‘artificial’ and ‘synthetic’ to describe food additives on all food and beverage labels after consumer research found they were causing consumers to shun such products.
This was announced by the Japanese Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) as a revision to the country’s Food Labelling Standards, a revision based on a Food Additive Labelling study conducted by the agency.
“According to the study results, consumers tend to avoid products that are labelled with the words ‘artificial’ and ‘synthetic’ when it comes to food additives [even though these have been certified by the government],” said CAA in the revision report.
“Hence after discussion it is the consensus that these terms should be deleted from food labels, [so] ‘synthetic preservatives’ and ‘artificial sweeteners’ [should be termed] ‘preservatives’ and ‘sweeteners’ [so as to] prevent further misidentification by consumers.
Canadian food manufacturer Top Tier Foods’ announcement that it had successfully created a plant-based wagyu divided opinion among the food industry in Japan, ranging from interest to outrage.
According to Top Tier Foods President Blair Bullus, the plant-based wagyu is estimated to make its Japan launch by the end of 2020, and the firm will be banking on the use of localised ingredients and production to market this to the local crowd.
“The plant-based wagyu is made from soy, an ingredient that is used a lot in Japan, and we’ve also partnered with local Japanese producers to manufacture at scale locally,” Bullus told FoodNavgator-Asia.
“So the idea is that keeping everything in Japan will appeal to the local crowd, as the flavour will be more authentic due to the use of Japanese ingredients such as soy sauce, sesame, ginger, garlic and of course, the soy base and all processed using traditional Japanese cooking techniques. It’s all very clean label too.”
Japanese F&B firms in Japan such as Nissin, Ajinomoto, Sapporo, Asahi, Kirin, Kewpie, Hotei Foods, and Megmilk Snow Brand were battling to provide 'business as usual', despite the state of emergency in the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On April 16, Japan’s Prime Minster Shinzo Abe declared a nationwide state of emergency in all 47 prefectures, in a bid to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
PM Abe explained it was not a lockdown, and essential services like clinics, pharmacies, transportation, banks, post offices, delivery services, supermarkets and convenience stores would continue to operate. There were no restrictions on going out to purchase daily necessities.
The government had however encouraged food services such as bars, clubs, to suspend their businesses and restaurants to limit their operating hours.
Beverage giant, Coca-Cola Japan launched two new PET packaging sizes, 350mL and 700mL for its iconic drink.
The company said the two newly launched packaging were meant to meet changing consumer trends.
The new products were sold in supermarkets, drug stores, discount stores in the Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama prefectures.
According to the firm’s Japan PR department, the existing core packaging sizes for Coca-Cola are 500mL PET and 1.5L PET. Besides PET, there are also a variety of glass (190mL), aluminum bottle (280mL) and can (350mL, 500mL) packaging.
Nissin Food Products (subsidiary of Nissin Foods Group) reformulated its instant noodles to reduce salt intake for the rising number of Japanese consumers with hypertension.
It has reduced sodium by 30% in its Cup Noodles, and developed a smart salt intake indicator for consumers.
The number of Nissin Cup Noodles sold worldwide had exceeded 45 billion in March 2019, according to Haruka Aoki from the corporate communication division at Nissin Foods Group.
According to the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, one-third of adults and two-thirds of elderly people in Japan are diagnosed with hypertension (140/90 mmHg or more), and it is expected that the number of patients with hypertension will increase in Japan as it faces a rapidly ageing society.
In April, Japan temporarily relaxed its traditionally strict food labelling regulations to help accommodate food manufacturing firms that needed to make adjustments to production processes or raw materials in their production chains as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
The country had been actively implementing and enforcing new strict food labelling standards over the past few years since 2015, with a final cut-off date for companies previously set on March 31 2020 – but the COVID-19 outbreak has thrown all of that into upheaval.
Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and six other prefectures over the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the country earlier this month, giving local authorities power to tell the public to stay at home and close businesses.
Many expect this to be expanded nationwide due to the country’s Golden Week period in late April/early May where a lot of travel occurs. As of April 22, the number of COVID-19 cases in the country stood at over 11,500, with over 280 deaths recorded.
Consumers in Japan expressed reluctance to shift to plant-based meats even as meat and fish consumption rates fall in the country, opting for ‘real’ vegetables instead.
According to research from insights firm FMCG Gurus, just 20% of Japanese consumers had opted to eat meat alternatives even when they actively attempted to reduce their meat intake, whereas the rest mostly opted to avoid this.
“In many instances, consumers would rather opt to avoid meat products completely as opposed to turn to meat substitutes,” FMCG Gurus Head of Research and Insight Mike Hughes told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“It is important to remember that the move to vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian diets is not being driven by the growth of meat substitutes - some consumers have concerns about such products, especially when it comes to taste and health (as well as affordability).”
Japan’s Kirin Brewery launched its non-alcoholic beer, Kirin Greens Free, nationwide in April, the latest in a long line of booze-free innovations in the country.
It is a non-alcoholic beverage (0.00% ABV) and made from only three ingredients, wheat, hop and water.
Ataka Takashima from the corporate communication department at Kirin Holdings told FoodNavigator-Asia that Kirin Greens Free was marketed as a ‘natural beer-tasting carbonated beverage’.
The company said the beer was the first in Japan which did not use additives such as flavours and artificial sweeteners to create a taste similar to beer.
Japanese seasoning giant Ajinomoto developed a new nutrient scoring system to evaluate the nutritional value of its products and help support future product development.
The company claimed to be the first food company in Japan to implement its Nutrient Profiling System (NPS) and will reformulate 500 of its products including seasonings, instant noodles, powdered soups, frozen foods and beverages.
The first reformulated products are expected to launch after FY2022, in Japan as well as Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brazil.
Dr. Kana Ohyama, project leader of the NPS at Ajinomoto told FoodNavigator-Asia the company had been working on the programme for three years.
Japan stepped up efforts to promote recycling and sustainability in the country by amending its regulations to allow the sales of specified condiments and beverages in PET bottles without any labels or tags whatsoever.
This latest amendment was made under the country’s Law for Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources, which falls under what is known as the ‘3R Policies’.
“All containers made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) that contain beverages and specific food condiments and seasonings can omit identification marks such as tags and labels unless required to do so under the provision of other laws and regulations,” said METI via a formal statement.
“A recycling identification mark must still be engraved directly on the PET bottle even though an identification label is no longer required. This must be located on the bottom or sides of individual containers.”
