Japan collects and shares good practices to accelerate actions for food loss and waste reduction

A variety of new businesses are encouraging the reduction of food loss and waste in Japan and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF) collects and shares the good practices to accelerate the actions to reduce food loss and waste.

Emerging food businesses are using new technology such as ICT or AI, e.g. support demand forecasting and the sales of unsold products and are expected to reduce food loss and waste in the future.

For the first international day of awareness of Food loss and Waste on  September 29th 2020, MAFF would like to introduce some of Japan's good practices to promote reduction of food loss and waste. MAFF hopes that by sharing these good practices all those who are committed to reduce food loss and waste can benefit.　

Sharing

Japan’s first social contribution platform for food sharing. It sells products supplied by cooperating
manufacturers that endorse their objectives. They provide overstocked products or those that are about to reach their expiration dates at special prices to their members. A part of the profits realised from sales is donated to social contribution activity groups Members not only contribute to reducing food loss but also buy products at a reasonable price In addition, they contribute to society and make ethical consumption easily.

Demand Forecasting

These are service providing companies with information on demand forecasting “Data of weather × Data of distribution and sales” is analyzed using the latest technology such as AI Because “it is possible to predict the weather by using physicochemical procedure“, utilizing the way of weather forecasts, data of the latest weather forecast is put into a demand forecast formula to produce advanced demand forecasts. This service started globally and is used for production planning or stock management preventing food loss due to overproduction by manufacturers of beverages, snacks seasoning or daily foods.

For further information :

Japan’s good practices (MAFF web site)

https://www.maff.go.jp/j/shokusan/recycle/syoku_loss/attach/pdf/business-4.pdf - only Japanese