Food Loss and Waste Reduction

Management information

Relevance to our business

As a manufacturer of food ingredients, the Fuji Oil Group recognizes the efficient use of limited food resources as a material issue, given concerns over population growth and future food supply challenges. Leveraging our position as a B-to-B food ingredient manufacturer, we can help to reduce food loss in our operations and the operations of our customers, B-to-C food manufacturers, and to reduce food waste at retailers through our product development.

Basic approach

The Fuji Oil Group develops technologies to reduce waste at several steps in the food value chain. The goal of these technologies is to reduce losses in our manufacturing and distribution processes, extend the best-before date of our products and customers’ products that use our products, and to enable reprocessing of customers’ products. Upcycling materials that otherwise would be wasted through the remarketing of food resources is an important strategy for reducing loss during manufacturing.

Management system

The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) oversees initiatives in this area. The ESG Committee,*1 an advisory body to the board of directors, has been monitoring the progress and results of initiatives as a material ESG issue.*2 The ESG Committee reports insights to the board of directors for review.

Goals / Results

At least 90% complete At least 60% complete Less than 60% complete

FY2020 Goals FY2020 Results Self-assessment
Reduce food loss by extending the best-before date of products and reprocessing products in the bread market We offer ingredients such as cheese to our customers that make it possible to reprocess or extend the best-before date of bread. The number of customers using our ingredients for reprocessing increased.

Analysis

Food loss and waste is emerging as an important issue in the bread market. Partnering with customers to find solutions led to an increase in the use of our solutions for this issue.

Next step

Food ingredients that remain safe and delicious over a longer period of time are necessary to reduce food loss and waste in the bread market. To address this issue, we set the following goal for FY2021.

  • Develop and propose technologies that maintain product quality (extend freshness) and technologies for secondary processing (repurposing)

Specific initiatives

Developing ingredients that enable food reprocessing

The Fuji Oil Group is working to reduce food loss through food reprocessing by selling ingredients, combining manufacturing technologies, and co-creating solutions with customers.
For example, we propose and offer ingredients for reprocessing unsold freshly baked bread into dressed bread. We plan to keep offering this type of solution to customers, and in this way, continue contributing to food loss reduction and culinary diversity.

Unsold surplus baguettes

Crispy gorgonzola toast

Creating functional food ingredients through upcycling

The Fuji Oil Group sells food ingredients made by separating plant-based raw materials into their constituent elements, such as oils, fats and protein. Using components of a raw material effectively is a crucial aspect of resource efficiency. Upcycling process streams in the production of soybean oil is an example of this. After pressing the soybeans for oil, we separate the soy protein, and from the curd by-product we separate the water-soluble soy polysaccharides.
In addition to food loss reduction through upcycling, we also work on creating new functional ingredients. One example of this is our effective use of starch residues, that tend to go to waste. The manufacturing process for pea starch, which is used to make noodles, generates large volumes of fiber as a by-product. Making effective use of this fiber, we developed an upcycling technology for manufacturing pea polysaccharides that can be used as a stabilizer to prevent whey separation of drinkable yogurt. As of July 2021, we are now building a plant in Germany dedicated to manufacturing pea polysaccharides from pea fiber, large quantities of which go to waste in Europe.
We will continue to increase food resource efficiency and to reduce food losses, focusing on unutilized food resources around the world and creating added value through upcycling.