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Support for food banks

MAFF supports an activity called a "food bank," which collects food that is discarded as non-standard products
generated during the food manufacturing process and provides it to welfare facilities, etc., free of charge.
For companies that provide non-standard products to food banks, they will apply tax incentives and other activities to encourage active use,
with the aim of reducing food loss that occurs in the distribution process.
With this activity, the percentage of prefectures conducting food bank activities increased from 63.8% in 2018 to 100%.

Strengthening of the legal system

In order to promote food waste reduction, laws related to food waste have been established by the country.
The big difference between the Food Recycling Law and the Food Loss Reduction Promotion Law is the target.

The Food Recycling Law is a law for food-related businesses such as food manufacturers, wholesalers/retailers, and restaurants.
On the other hand, the Food Loss Reduction Promotion Act is a law that aims to work together
not only with businesses but with the entire nation.

Call for "temaedori"

“Temaedori” is the act of actively choosing products that are nearing their sell-by date and are lined up in front of the shelves.
In October 2018, the city of Kobe started an awareness campaign in response to the problem of food waste caused by consumers picking up products with long expiration dates placed in the back of retail stores such as supermarkets. Then, this movement spread across the country.
This is expected to have the effect of reducing food waste due to food being discarded after the expiration date at retail stores.

MAFF is working with the Japan Franchise Association, the Consumer Affairs Agency, and the Ministry of the Environment to create enlightenment materials in order to encourage consumers to demonstrate "temaedori" at retail stores.

In addition, anyone who is working to reduce food loss can freely use these enlightenment materials, and by doing so, they are working to widely promote the reduction of food loss.

Educating the consumers

In order to make consumers more aware of the need to reduce food loss and the activities that can be done to reduce food loss,
they have published educational leaflets summarizing the current state of food loss using specific figures, etc.
They are making pamphlets and other materials to inform consumers about
how much of an effect consumers can have by practicing this approach.

In addition, the Consumer Affairs Agency website collects and disseminates information, recipes for reducing food loss
through recipe posting sites, and promotes understanding of expiry dates to prevent early disposal.

Reviewing of business practices

Businesses handling food are being encouraged to review their business practices.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has set up a "Working Team for Reviewing Business Practices to Reduce Food Loss" to address issues such as excess inventory and returns that cause food loss in the manufacturing, wholesale, and retail industries.

1. Relaxation of delivery deadlines
Items that are not delivered within the short delivery deadline based on the "one-third rule" may be discarded.
Therefore, it is necessary to cooperate with retailers to ease delivery deadlines a reviewing the "one-third rule".

2. Comprehensive labelling of expiration dates
Currently, the expiration date of many products is indicated by the date displayed on package.
Items may not be delivered because the expiration date is earlier than the retailer's inventory,
and undeliverable items are more likely to be scrapped.
For this reason, by displaying the best-before date in a generalized manner,
such as by combining the expiration date with the year, month, or day
(with the date displayed, the date is unified in units of, for example, 10 days),
the reduction of food waste is attempted.

3. Review of sales methods at retail stores
It is often seen that retailers do not sell products until the expiry date/best before date and remove them from the sales floor before the expiry date. Retailers are being asked to offer discounts on such expiring products, as many of the removed products will be discarded.

4. Review lead time (period from order to delivery)
In Japan, the period from order to delivery is short, and there is a strong demand not to run out of stock. For this reason, manufacturers are more likely to produce surplus products and discard them, and it is necessary to review the lead time.
At this stage, retailers are required to share the sales status with each supplier (manufacturer).

Sharing demand forecasts using weather information

Until now, the supply chain was fragmented, so manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers had to forecast demand independently, leading to mismatches in order quantities and food loss. Therefore, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Japan Weather Association have started a project to reduce waste in the supply chain by jointly making demand forecasts using big data such as weather information and POS data.