Tag Archives: Japan

About Labeling Rules for Individual Food Items (Japan)

On January 30, 2024, at the Third Fiscal 2023 Food Labeling Discussion Meeting the revision of the labeling rules set for individual food items was discussed. A useful material has been provided as an easy-to-understand summary of the current issues titled [Reference] Labeling Rules for Individual Items and I would like to go through it… more »

2nd Discussion on Initiatives for Easy-to-understand Nutrition Facts held (Japan)

The 2nd Discussion on the initiatives for easy-to-understand Nutrition Facts labeling (hereafter referred as to the Discussion)  was held on January 31, 2024. I would like to summarize the content of the second round of the Discussion based on the published materials. What is the Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labelling (FOPNL)? The published material 2 – titled… more »

Revision Draft to add “macadamia nuts” to and delete “matsutake mushroom” from the list of the allergens for recommended labeling announced (Japan)

The Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) announced that it planned to revise “Regarding Food Labeling Standards” within the current fiscal year (by the end of March, 2024) in a set of the materials of the “The 6th Advisors’ Meeting on Food Allergen (13 December, 2023)”. The main points of the revision are as follows. After the… more »

About Food Label Creation and Checking

I explained the importance of understanding the overall outline of the Food Labeling Standards　(the Standards, the Notifications, the Guidelines) and cross-sectional/individual, structure in an external lecture entitled “Food Labeling Standards and Important Points in Practice” the other day. At that time, I mentioned how difficult to operate “tasks seemingly easy to do without special pieces… more »

Japanese version of FOPNL now under consideration

On October 26, 2023, the Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) announced that they would hold discussions about the basic direction of the Japanese version of the “Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labeling (FOPNL)”. This time, I would like to summarize the FOPNL system, which is currently under consideration, based on the documents published at the 1st Discussion Meeting on… more »

Guidelines for Notification of Foods with Function Claims partially revised (Japan)

On September 29, 2023, the Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) announced the partial revision of the Guidelines for Notification of Foods with Function Claims (FFC) ([For food-related business operators] About notification of FFC). As outlined in the partial revision draft for Guidelines for Notification of FFC (Summary), the major points of the revision are compliance with… more »

Format Revision of the JAS (Japan)

Summary On August 23, 2023, the Council for the Japanese Agricultural Standards (JAS) was held to discuss revisions of eight standards, including the JAS for Jams and the JAS for brewed vinegar. The main changes in this revision are as follows,  -the format of the JAS will be changed to the simpler one in accordance… more »

Future of allergen labeling (Japan) (Consideration of adding macadamia nuts to the list of recommended labeling)

The Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) held the 5th Advisors’ Meeting on Food Allergen Labeling  in June 14, 2023. After making walnuts obligatory for the allergen labeling in March this year, the CAA published a policy plan to add “macadamia nuts“ to and remove “matsutake mushrooms“ from the list of recommended labeling for allergens in the… more »

Request for re-verification of notified documents for Foods with Function Claims issued (Japan)

On July 3, 2023, the Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) requested in writing that relevant organizations re-verify the scientific evidence for Foods with Function Claims (FFC), and the reverification request has already been notified to and made public by CAA (Re-Verification of Notification Documents Concerning FFC (Request)). Furthermore, CAA published the Measures for FFC based on the… more »