Consumer Affairs Agency Begins Operating a Food Bank Certification System from April 1—Reducing Loss by Raising the Reliability of Food Donations in Partnership with MAFF

From April 1, 2026, the Consumer Affairs Agency, in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, will begin operating afood bank certification system. By certifying food bank organizations that properly manage food and meet the compliance items of the "Food Donation Guidelines," the aim is to promote donations from food manufacturers and retailers and to pursue food loss reduction and effective food use at the same time. Details of the system were released as a press release dated March 27.

The background of the system: 287 organizations processing 6,000 tons a year, yet "still not reaching"

As of the end of March 2025, the number of food bank activity organizations nationwide reached287 organizations. This is only the figure for organizations listed and registered with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, but it has increased from 272 organizations as of May 2024, and social interest in food banks is rising.

On the other hand, the annual food handling volume of Japanese food banks as a whole remains at about6,000 tons. Compared with U.S. food banks handling over 7.39 million tons a year, Japan's scale is still limited. Given that the domestic food loss volume in FY2023 was4.64 million tons(released by the Consumer Affairs Agency and the Ministry of the Environment), the volume food banks can absorb is only about 0.1% of the total.

One cause pointed out for this large gap isfood manufacturers' and retailers' hesitation to donate. Out of concerns such as resale risk, unease over the hygiene management of frozen and refrigerated food, and the reliability of donation recipients not being guaranteed, there were quite a few cases where companies disposed of food they should have been able to donate.

A two-stage certification mechanism: Ministry of Agriculture "list listing" then Consumer Affairs Agency "certification"

The system starting this time consists of the followingtwo-stage process.

The "Food Donation Guidelines – Toward Improving the Reliability of Food Donation (First Edition)," which serve as the certification standard, were formulated in December 2024, and items such asgovernance structure, operational flow, and hygiene managementare reviewed. Notably, it clearly states that "certification is granted without requiring current handling volume," a design that sets no hurdle to obtaining certification even for small organizations.

Certified food banks are published on the Consumer Affairs Agency's website and elsewhere, creating an environment where companies can search for reliable donation recipients. Expanded acceptance of items that were hard to donate due to hygiene management concerns, such as frozen and refrigerated food, is also expected.

The connection with the food loss reduction the Consumer Affairs Agency aims for

In 2025, the Consumer Affairs Agency made a cabinet decision on theBasic Plan for Promoting Food Loss Reduction (2nd), raising the FY2030 reduction target for household and business food loss from the conventional 50% reduction to60% reduction. Increasing the volume of food circulated to food banks is clearly stated as a means to achieve this target. This certification system is positioned to function as a policy tool for promoting it.

Also, in the FY2023 food loss statistics, business-sector loss (2.36 million tons) fell below household-sector loss (2.28 million tons) for the first time. This shows that improvement on the business side is advancing, but theabsolute volume of 4.64 million tonsstill corresponds to about 37 kg per person a year, meaning "discarding a bowl's worth of food every day."

Implications for dried vegetable and food processing OEM: the "resourcing" of pre-disposal food accelerates

This food bank certification system is a policy change that food manufacturers and processors cannot ignore either.

In food manufacturing, raw materials nearing their best-before date and out-of-spec vegetables arise regularly. Until now they were disposed of as a cost, but there was a practical hurdle of the difficulty of selecting a reliable food bank. If the certification system lowers that barrier, a scheme of turning pre-disposal food into donations becomes easier to approve internally.

In the manufacturing process of dried and powdered vegetables too, yield loss is unavoidable. For example, the crushed pieces and fine grains arising in the drying step cannot be shipped as products, but at the raw-vegetable stage before processing they can be donation candidates.This has high affinity with the efforts ofupcyclers who powder out-of-spec vegetables

, and a circular food-use model of "dried processing, then residue to food banks" is emerging as a realistic option.

Summary

• From the perspective of agricultural businesses and contract food processors (OEM businesses), cooperation with certified food bank organizations can be evaluated not only as positioning it as a CSR activity but as a practical benefit of reducing food disposal cost and lowering waste disposal expenses. The weight of two agencies, the Consumer Affairs Agency and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, cooperating to design the system is significant, and it is a movement worth watching as one that could affect ESG evaluation from financial institutions and business partners going forward.
• Two-stage review (Ministry of Agriculture list listing, then Consumer Affairs Agency certification) makes food banks' reliability visible
• A design allowing certification regardless of handling volume, covering small organizations too
• Food donations from companies, including frozen and refrigerated food, are expected to be promoted
• Functions as a policy linked to the food loss reduction target (60% reduction by 2030)
• For dried vegetable and food processing OEM businesses, it deserves attention from both the perspective of reducing disposal cost and strengthening CSR

Source:Consumer Affairs Agency, "On the Start of Operation of the Food Bank Certification System" (March 27, 2026) / Japan Agricultural News (March 29, 2026)