Japan Focus: Meiji, YEBISU, Taiwan easing food export restrictions, and more
Meiji invests USD28m to boost production capacity of Hello Panda in US, catapult overseas sales
“In order to meet growing demand, we are investing about USD28m (JPY4.1bn) to increase our production capacity for Hello Panda, with plans to increase this amount in FY2025,” said Meiji.
The investment will go into Meiji America’s facility located in Santa Ana, where the production of three key brands, namely Hello Panda, Yan Yan, and Chocorooms, take place.
Breaking tradition: YEBISU accelerating expansion of creative range to catalyse new appeal for beer
First brewed in 1890, Yebisu has always emphasised on an “authentic German beer flavour” until last year, when it debuted a new range called Creative Brew.
This series aims to “challenge and deliver new and fun flavours of beer” that are not bound by conventional concepts of the alcoholic beverage.
‘Positive progress’: Japan rejoices over Taiwan’s relaxing of restrictions on food exports affected by Fukushima nuclear disaster
Taiwan has been one of its toughest nuts to crack in recent years, not least due to what Japan has long viewed as political influences such as the ‘nuclear food referendum’ that took place back in 2018 and saw a failed bid to reinstate food imports from the affected areas.
Six years on, Japan has finally gotten Taiwan to fully reopen its doors to food imports, specifically removing the need to file radiation reports for specific products such as tea from Shizuoka and seafood from Iwate.
Advancing acceptability: Ajinomoto highlights Indonesia’s urgent sodium reduction needs
Japan has conducted studies on using monosodium glutamate (MSG) to replace table salt. Indonesia will need to not only do the same but more, said Ajinomoto Indonesia spokesman Professor Dr. Hardinsyah.
“Japanese also eat a lot more fruits, vegetables and fish compared to Indonesians as part of their daily diets, and this essentially allows them to have somewhat higher levels of sodium due to the interactions between foods. This is not so for Indonesians as we eat far less of these foods, which means we instead need to really aim for directly reduced sodium consumption,” said Prof Hardinsyah.
NutraIngredients-Asia Awards 2024 winner Kaneka breaks down the importance of ubiquinol in the healthy ageing process
Ubiquinol plays a crucial role in mitochondrial function, and mitochondria generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules which are essentially energy – on average, a human cell uses around 10 billion ATP molecules a day, and the body consumes about 40kg of ATP on a daily basis.
“There is no way for the body to function without ATP, so maintaining cell and mitochondrial health and function is absolutely essential, and ubiquinol is the way to do this,” said Kaneka Corporation spokesman Kazuki Takita.
