Food Safety and Health

Sustainability Management

Material ESG Issues

Food Safety and Health

Sustainability Areas

Priority Actions

PolicyGRI: 2-23

Guided by the vision, mission, and values set out in our Group Management Philosophy, the Fuji Oil Group positions Food Safety and Health as a core management policy underpinning all its business activities and value creation.
As a food ingredient manufacturer specializing in plant-based ingredients, we believe that ensuring food safety and quality is vital to earning social trust and sustaining our business. It remains our highest priority across all products, technologies, and business decisions.
At the same time, our mission to help enrich people’s lives through deliciousness and health goes beyond ensuring product safety. It also reflects our corporate responsibility to actively create value that fosters happiness and well-being through food.
We established the Basic Policy of Safety, Quality and Environment* to serve as our guiding framework. To address the evolving food landscape and health-related challenges, we leverage our expertise and technological capabilities as a food manufacturer to continue providing ingredients and products that support people’s health and well-being. Through these efforts, we aim to remain a company trusted and chosen by society.

GovernanceGRI: 2-12, 2-13, 2-14, 3-3

Our Group established the Sustainability Committee*1 as an advisory body to the Board of Directors that is chaired by the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
From a multi-stakeholder perspective, the committee deliberates on and monitors priority actions on material ESG issues in light of the medium- to long-term impacts of risks and opportunities related to sustainability issues, including environment and natural capital, on our business and corporate value, and makes recommendations to the Board.
Furthermore, we appoint a Chief Officer for each priority action to drive initiatives based on policies, strategies, and metrics and targets.*2 We have established a framework that enables the Sustainability Committee and the Board of Directors to continuously monitor the progress of these initiatives.

Table: Chief officer in charge of each priority action

Priority action Chief officer in charge
Ensuring Product Safety and Quality Control Executive Officer
Head of Safety, Quality and Production Technology Headquarters
Reduction of Process Contaminants in Oils and Fats Senior Executive Officer
Head of Oils & Fats Business Headquarters
Solutions for Health and Well-being Executive Officer
Head of R&D Headquarters
Creation of Diverse Plant-based Ingredients

StrategyGRI: 3-3

Health-related value creation built on a foundation of food safety

Our Group positions Food Safety and Health as our highest priority, forming our foundation as a business involved in food. While quality-related accidents concerning food safety can seriously impact business continuity and brand value, rising health consciousness, diversifying dietary habits, and other social changes present new opportunities for growth.
In light of these risks and opportunities, we work to create health-related value that contributes to greater health and well-being for people. Building on our foundation of safe, high-quality food ingredients, we enhance the nutritional and health benefits of food in ways that consumers can naturally integrate into their lives.
We also assess issues related to food safety and health across our entire value chain and identify priority themes for focused action, taking into account their materiality, impact, and time horizon. More specifically, to address food safety risks, our top priorities are ensuring product safety and quality control and the reduction of process contaminants in oils and fats. At the same time, to expand health-related value and open new market opportunities, we are working on solutions for health and well-being and the creation of diverse plant-based ingredients.

Strategy matrix

Fuji Oil Group’s Approach

Reasons for importance Initiatives to enhance business capital
  • Food safety and quality assurance are the highest priorities for food manufacturers.
  • Amid growing concerns about health issues, companies are expanding their product lineups that support health and well-being and help mitigate cognitive decline in older adults, while also meeting market and customer demands for quality standards.
 Natural capital －
Social and relationship capital
  • Provide transparent disclosures to foster stakeholder trust
Direction of initiatives Manufactured capital
  • Conduct technological innovation and process improvements to deliver safety and quality that meet and exceed the demands of customers and other stakeholders
  • Help balance food safety, health and well-being, and the joy of eating
  • Create health-related value and develop new markets by combining functional benefits and great taste through technology
 Intellectual capital －
Human capital
  • Foster a corporate culture across the Group to ensure that serious quality-related complaints never arise

Strategy

Priority action Ensuring Product Safety and Quality Control Reduction of Process Contaminants in Oils and Fats Solutions for Health and Well-being Creation of Diverse Plant-based Ingredients
Risks
  • Long-term loss of market and customer credibility, along with reduced profitability and corporate value, due to safety and quality issues such as consumer health hazards and negative impacts on customer production plans
 (Reduced profitability and corporate value resulting from failure to capitalize on the opportunities listed below) (Reduced profitability and corporate value resulting from failure to capitalize on the opportunities listed below)
  • Raw material procurement and price increase risks caused by climate change and ecosystem destabilization
  • Higher raw material procurement risks due to concentrated demand and stricter regulations
  • Health and environmental concerns, as well as supply and price uncertainties, associated with animal-based ingredients
Opportunities (Increased credibility and corporate value gained by addressing the risks listed above)
  • Increased profitability by expanding the supply of oil and fat products that meet changes in the market environment and needs, including the growing customer demand for reduced process contaminants
  • Increased profitability by expanding the supply of health-related products — such as DTR,*1 PUFA,*2 BFY products,*3 and plant-based proteins — that meet changes in the market environment and needs, including the growing customer and consumer demand for solutions to health and well-being issues
  • Amid rising raw material procurement risks and supply uncertainties, increased revenue through diverse plant-based ingredients that broaden procurement sources, expand applications, and help stabilize supply
  • With market needs emphasizing environmental impact reduction and sustainability, create added value by offering the functionalities and applications of diverse plant-based ingredients
  • Against the backdrop of diversifying dietary habits and changing preferences, create growth opportunities by expanding applications that leverage the unique deliciousness and ease of use of plant-based ingredients
Financial impact of risks and opportunities Short-term High Medium Medium Low
Medium-term High Medium High High
Long-term High Medium High Extremely High
Value chain Upstream － － － ●
Group － － － ●
Downstream ● ● ● ●
Our vision and goals
  • Ensure that the Fuji Oil Group is never a cause for complaints for any of the products it manufactures
  • Reduce process contaminant levels in line with market expectations
  • Clearly communicate the health-related value of our products that help build a society where people are mentally and physically healthy and lead purposeful lives. Expand the range of health-related value offered by our products
  • Make plant-based foods widely and readily available. Increase dietary choices to help address food supply problems, and broaden new business fields
Social and environmental impact Negative impacts to be reduced
  • Health damage, violation of food laws and regulations
Positive impacts to be created
  • Support people’s lifelong well-being
  • Achieve both deliciousness and healthiness
Connection to key policy of the medium-term management plan
  • Enhance governance
  • Further strengthen growth fields
  • Further strengthen growth fields
  • Establish new business fields
  • Establish new business fields
  • *1 DTR: A technology for stable dispersion of substances that had been difficult to dissolve into the oils and fats
  • *2 PUFA: Polyunsaturated fatty acids
  • *3 BFY products: Stands for Better-For-You. Products that are created to be healthier, such as by using simpler raw materials or by adding or enhancing functional benefits

Risk management

Our Group systematically manages risks and opportunities related to the sustainability area, Food Safety and Health. We position them within our group-wide risk management framework and link them to Group significant risks.
More specifically, we classify these risks and opportunities under the relevant risk types — strategy, products, and procurement — and define and assess them in terms of their impacts on our business strategy, business continuity, and the entire supply chain.
This approach enables us to integrate risks and opportunities on food safety and health into our business strategy and procurement activities, supporting effective risk management.

The risk management initiatives for each priority action are described in the section on priority actions below.