Japan Focus: Nissin cup noodle lid innovation, Suntory's IoT bottled water plant, Coca-Cola's freeze-dried drinks and more feature in our round-up

Flipping the lid: Nissin cuts plastic use with new cup noodle packaging innovation​

Nissin is eliminating the use of lid-closing stickers on its cup noodle packaging, replacing it with a new innovation, in a bid to reduce plastic waste.

Previously, the sticker kept the lid shut after hot water was poured into the cup noodle container, however it was made from plastic.

The new double flap lid will offer the same action, with a W shape flap to keep the lid shut. There is no change of the lid material, which is derived from paper.

According to Haruka Aoki, chief of the corporate communication division at Nissin Foods Holdings, this move was aimed at reducing plastic waste.

“In recent years, environmental issues concerning plastic waste have been attracting a great deal of attention. By eliminating the plastic lid-closing sticker used in cup noodles, this initiative aims to reduce the amount of plastic used by 33 tons annually​.”

Next generation factory: Suntory’s new IoT-enabled bottled water plant cuts troubleshooting time by 90%​

Suntory has implemented a new Internet of Things (IoT) system at its bottled water plant in Japan’s Nagono Prefecture, which is said to rapidly speed-up troubleshooting procedures.

The system is being implemented at the Suntory Kita-Alps Shinano-no-Mori Water Plant, which manufactures Suntory Tennensui Kita-Alps, a bottled water product in 550mL and 2L.

The plant is capable of producing 1,000 bottles per minute. Suntory plans to evaluate this model in Nagano, and eventually expand the model to its nine other beverage plants in Japan.

Drop it then it's hot: Coca-Cola Japan creates freeze-dried tea and coffee cubes to reduce packaging waste​

Coca-Cola Japan has developed a barley tea, green tea and coffee freeze-dried cube under the 1,2,CUBE brand to bring an innovative, convenient, and environmentally friendly solution to the instant beverage market.

Freeze dried coffee and tea are not novel, although it is not common in Japan. This is Coca-Cola Japan’s first product of its kind.

It is made by extracting tea leaves or coffee beans in a concentrate, which is then frozen and vacuumed. Because no aggressive heat treatment is applied, the original aroma and taste of the ingredients remain in the cubes.

The freeze-dried cubes can be added to hot or room temperature water which dissolves entirely.

Delivering efficiencies: Japan issues national logistics improvement guidelines for processed food and beverage industries​

Japan has issued a new set of interministerial guidelines for logistic improvement in its processed food, beverages and liquor sectors, calling for manufacturers, retailers and other stakeholders to implement changes to improve transportation efficiencies.

The new guidelines were issued in the form of a sixty-eight page report published by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) and the National Tax Agency.

“Surveys have revealed that the amount of waiting time for cargo to [be transported] was particularly high in several fields [including those of] processed foods [and beverages] since 2018,”​ said MLIT via the report.

“Furthermore, since 2020 beverages and liquor were also found to have long waiting times and also a similar structure to processed foods, hence efforts have been made to [search for solutions to make improvements] in all three areas.”​

Food loss in Japan: Manufacturing sector highlighted as highest contributor as government urges consumers to buy ‘from the front’​

Japan’s food manufacturing sector has been highlighted as the highest contributor to food loss in the country as the government announced its lowest-ever figure of six million tonnes, whilst urging consumers to do more by buying products ‘from the front’ of aisles.

In the government’s latest report on national-level food loss, Japan reported six million tonnes of loss in FY2018 (April 2018 to March 2019) from data aggregated and analysed over two years, a 120,000 ton reduction and 2% improvement from the previous year (FY2017).

The report was published by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) earlier this year, and also highlighted that the food manufacturing industry had contributed to the largest amount of food loss amongst other industries dealing with food such as wholesalers, retailers and foodservice.

“The amount of food loss resulting from businesses (3.24 million tonnes) has been higher than that from households (2.76 million tonnes), and furthermore, household food losses have decreased by 3% (80,000 tonnes) as opposed to 1% (40,000 tonnes) in businesses,”​ said MAFF via the report.