Maximizing Usage of Food Resources
Approach and Efforts to Maximize Usage of Food Resources
While Japan depends on imports for a significant proportion of its food products, a vast amount of food is wasted in the country. Meanwhile, food shortages are becoming increasingly serious around the world as populations increase.
Using limited food resources more effectively can help reduce hunger, lower environmental impact and bring food costs down.
With this in mind, production plants of the Ajinomoto Group are taking stringent measures to maximize usage of the food resources processed and minimize leftover waste. Furthermore, the plants are making every effort to re-use materials remaining after production processes in fertilizer and livestock feed products, thereby establishing a recycling pattern.
To ensure that no food products are wasted even after they have been produced for consumption, the Ajinomoto Group is working to increase the accuracy of its demand-side management of product shipments. Stock on hand is reduced, and any products that remain undelivered are effectively utilized. In addition, efforts are being stepped up to promote cooking ideas and recipes that minimize food waste and maximize flavorful ingredients to encourage customers to refrain from wasting food in the kitchen and at the dining table.
Initiative 1: Recycling resources as organic fertilizer
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Fertilizer made at the Shikoku Plant is used for cabbage fields
Fertilizer made at the Shikoku Plant is used for onion fields
The Shikoku Plant of Ajinomoto Frozen Foods Co., Inc. (FFA) produces about 130 products for retail and food services, such as gyoza (dumplings) and Agezuni Sakuttosan, a range of low-calorie frozen food products that are not fried in oil. Large amounts of vegetable residue, such as the cores and outer leaves of cabbage not used for products, in addition to other organic residue are generated in the food production process. To make full use of these remaining natural resources, the plant introduced equipment to compost the residue on-site, and began to sell it as organic fertilizer in fiscal 2006.
From the second half of fiscal 2008, the Shikoku Plant began selling the fertilizer to the local-area farmers that it has contracted to produce cabbage and onions. In this way, the plant is using the farm produce as raw materials for frozen foods and returning unused materials back to the source in a recycling loop.
By fiscal 2010, 40% of the entire amount of fertilizer produced at the plant was being used in the local area. In the future, FFA intends to continue collaborating with the local farmers it contracts to supply produce as a means to fully use natural resources and promote resource recycling.
Initiative 2: Promoting delicious, environmentally conscious recipes to customers
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"Eco-Uma Recipes" are featured on the Ajinomoto Group Web site (Japanese only)
To raise customer awareness on the importance of maximizing food resources and minimizing waste in everyday cooking, Ajinomoto Co., Inc. has been expanding an "Eco-Uma" initiative, which promotes recipes and tips for delicious and ecologically conscious meals.
In fiscal 2010, the company began a campaign inviting customers to submit "Eco-Uma Recipes." From a large number of entries, the company awarded prizes to 15 winning recipes and ideas, and featured them on its Web site, in promotional leaflets, and at related events.
Looking ahead, Ajinomoto Co., Inc. will broaden the campaign to include customers' tips and cooking techniques, such as their choice of environmentally friendly ingredients and seasonings, as well as preparation, cooking and preservation methods. Through such campaigns, the company intends to take advantage of a variety of opportunities to promote the message that ecological living begins at the dining table.
Initiative 3: NPO cooperation to donate to food banks as a way to effectively use food resources
As food products cannot be sold if their expiration date approaches while they are still in storage before shipment, they must be disposed of through incineration.
Although Ajinomoto Co., Inc. makes every effort to minimize the disposal of such products, several hundred tonnes are nevertheless incinerated annually. To address this situation, in previous years the company continually examined the possibility of donating the products to food banks1 as a way of effectively using valuable food resources.
In fiscal 2010, Ajinomoto Co., Inc. began its first trial food bank donation, and provided 75 cases of food items in cooperation with Second Harvest Japan, an NPO the company selected on the basis of the results and scope of the organization's activities. The final trial will conclude in fiscal 2011, and an in-house system to begin full-fledged donation activities is being planned.
Along with these activities, the company will continue optimizing production plans to minimize the number of products that cannot be shipped out.
1. Food banks often receive donations from corporations of food that, despite having no quality issues, cannot be sold in the market due to damaged packaging or other reasons, for distribution to people in need.
