Rei Kojima– Author –
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健康経営優良法人がさらに拡大｜食が最重要テーマになった理由
2026年度の「健康経営優良法人」認定企業数がさらに拡大し、1万社を超える規模となった。大企業部門・中小企業部門を合わせた認定数の拡大が続く中、注目されているのが「食の施策」だ。運動習慣やメンタルケアに並ぶ柱として、野菜摂取・栄養改善が最も従... -
On January 28, 2026, FamilyMart announced a partnership with "Too Good To Go," an app with a cumulative food-loss-reduction record of over 500 million meals worldwide. It began pilot operation at 6 Tokyo stores in the Ikebukuro, Komazawa University, and Aoyama areas, succeeding in reducing waste by about 5%...
Upcycled Foods Expand | The New Value of Off-Spec Vegetables -
In the food industry, the "upcycling" movement is accelerating. Efforts to use off-spec vegetables and manufacturing by-products not as "waste" but as "valuable ingredients" are drawing attention as part of sustainability management. A movement facing the 4.64-million-ton food-loss challenge. Environ...
We Were Featured on MAFF's "Nippon Food Shift" Suste-Nabe Page -
Vegetable Shortage Among Japanese People Widens | The Reality of Not Reaching the 350g Target
The vegetable-intake target set by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is 350g per day. But according to the latest National Health and Nutrition Survey, the average intake among Japanese people remains at about 280g, continuing to hover at about 80% of the target. How to fill this "70g wall" has become a new theme for the food industry. Across all age groups... -
The Freeze-Dried Vegetable Market Grows 8.7% Annually | The Background of Its Expansion
The global freeze-dried vegetable market is rapidly growing. The 2026 market size will reach about 9 billion dollars, and the vegetable segment in particular shows high growth at a CAGR of 8.7%. The attention on dried vegetables, which achieve both health-consciousness and convenience, supports this growth. Why freeze-dried vegetables are growing... -
Agriture Inc. has been listed as a joint PR member on the Suste-Nabe special page of "Rethinking Japan Through Food. NIPPON FOOD SHIFT," the food-education and food-security awareness project promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. What Is Suste-Nabe? "Suste-Nabe" is the challenge surrounding our food...
March 10, 2026 -
Featured on the rolling-stock page of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ “Nippon Food Shift”
Agriture Inc. was featured as a joint-PR member on the rolling-stock special page of "Thinking About Japan Through Food. NIPPON FOOD SHIFT," a food-education and food-security awareness project promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. What is rolling stock? Rolling stock is... -
What is the superfood moringa? Its nutritional features and how to choose and drink powder and tea
"Moringa," which has drawn attention lately alongside rising health consciousness. A plant of the horseradish-tree family native to India, it's also called the "miracle tree" and "tree of life" because almost all of its parts—leaves, seeds, roots—can be used. This tree, which grows in tropical and subtropical regions, has astonishing growth... -
Contributing to corporate branding! How to choose sustainable novelties
As companies work toward realizing a sustainable society, novelty goods too are increasingly required to reduce environmental impact and be sustainable. Among these, dried vegetables are sometimes used as a new kind of novelty that can contribute to the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)... -
Notable upcycle food brands | A sustainable choice
With about 40% of the food produced worldwide being discarded, “upcycle foods” are drawing attention as a new solution that turns that waste into value. This article explains the idea of upcycling—breathing new life into ingredients and byproducts destined for disposal—and the Kyoto-born dried vegetable brand “OY... -
The relationship between non-standard vegetables and food loss | Solutions and case studies
“Non-standard vegetables” discarded without reaching the market for reasons such as appearance or size not meeting standards. Although they are still perfectly edible, many are discarded, making them a major cause of food loss. Today, putting such non-standard vegetables to use is drawing attention... -
The foods Gen Z chooses. An era when environmental consideration becomes brand strength
Hello, everyone. I’m Kojima of Agriture Inc. We work to transform unused resources—non-standard vegetables and surplus harvest—into new food raw materials through drying and powdering. Working daily to give new value to vegetables, across generations... -
The potential of new businesses using unused resources, and 5 secrets to success
Soaring resource prices, pressure for environmental consideration, the current toward sustainable management. What companies are now called on to have is a “use-it-all” mindset. Drawing attention is the use of “unused resources” overlooked until now—byproducts of discarded crops, ingredients dormant in regions, and what comes out during processing... -
A Complete Guide to Using Moringa Powder: Effective Ways to Take It and Recipes
Moringa powder is a health food made by drying and powdering the leaves of moringa, called the "miracle tree." This plant native to India contains over 90 kinds of nutrients, with a good balance of the nutrients our bodies need—vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron, amino acids, and more... -
Moringa is called a "nutrient-rich tree" and draws attention as a superfood containing over 90 kinds of nutrients. But to make the most of that rich nutritional value, an appropriate processing method is essential. The powdering process starts from harvest. At a processing facility in Kagoshima Prefecture...
Dried goods are ingredients dried for long-term storage. By removing the moisture, they are characterized by concentrated umami and nutritional components. In Japanese food culture, dried goods have long held an important place. With their excellent shelf stability, the convenience of being usable easily anytime, and their distinctive flavor and texture... -
What are the quality standards for domestic mugwort? Points to judge by growing region, cultivation, and processing
When it comes to mugwort quality, what do you think is the most important factor? Many people focus on the words “domestic” and “pesticide-free,” but in fact the biggest factor determining quality is “drying technology.” No matter how fine the mugwort you grow, if nutrition and aroma are lost in the drying process,... -
What is behind the rising demand for mugwort? Market trends and the potential for use
Demand for mugwort is rising markedly. Why is this Japanese herb, long beloved in Japan, now drawing so much attention? Behind it lie rising health consciousness, a reappraisal of Japanese herbs, and the discovery of new uses in the beauty and food industries. Especially since 2024... -
Complete guide to using mugwort powder | Recipes for kusa mochi, bread, and lattes, plus amounts and selection
Mugwort powder (yomogi powder), usable in kusa mochi, mugwort tea, and mugwort bread. Made by drying and powdering the leaves, mugwort powder’s appeal is that it can be mixed directly into dough or drinks without the trouble of rehydrating. Still, many people are unsure “how much to add” and “what uses there are”... -
Points for Moringa Product Development: A Winning Strategy for Planning, Manufacturing, and Sales
Alongside rising health consciousness, interest in superfoods is expanding rapidly. Among them, moringa—called a "nutrient-rich tree"—contains a wide range of nutrients such as vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron, and amino acids, and is drawing attention as functional foods, powder products, and green-juice-type... -
A Guide to Selecting Superfood Raw Materials: Points to Master in Product Development
Alongside rising health consciousness, the functional food market is expanding rapidly. At its core are the nutrient-rich raw materials called "superfoods." A superfood is a food with excellent nutritional balance that contains many kinds of beneficial components, or one in which a particular beneficial component stands out... -
Why high-priced domestic dried fruit is scarce, and its potential in pet and confectionery development
Dried fruit, whose popularity is rising as a healthy snack and natural ingredient. However, most products distributed in the domestic market are overseas-grown and sugar-added. In fact, “domestic” and “sugar-free” dried fruit is still a limited presence. Why domestic... -
What is edible tea? The appeal of fruit tea, ideal for gifts and novelties
Also searched for as “dried fruit black tea,” “edible tea” is a group of products that pair dried fruit with teas such as black tea, rooibos, and herbal tea; you pour hot water to enjoy the aroma and taste, then eat the fruit itself at the end. Apple, mandarin orange, strawberry... -
A Thorough Comparison of Strawberry Drying Methods: The Characteristics and Uses of Freeze-Drying, Sun-Drying, and the Oven
Strawberries are fruit prized for their vivid color and sweet-tart flavor, but the drawback is that they don't keep. What draws attention there is the method of drying strawberries for long-term storage. Diverse drying technologies exist—freeze-drying, sun-drying, oven, dried-fruit maker—and each... -
Freeze-Dried Strawberry Slices | Confectionery Uses by Thickness
Freeze-dried strawberry (slice) is an ingredient made by cutting strawberries to a uniform thickness (2–5mm) and then freeze-drying them. Being thin and easy to top with, and with the cross-section pattern vividly retained, it's used for products that "show on the surface"—chocolate, granola, baked goods, latte art, premium cereal, and more... -
Freeze-Dried Strawberry Dice | Kneading Uses in Confectionery and Baking
Freeze-dried strawberry (dice) is an ingredient made by dicing strawberries into uniform sizes and then freeze-drying them. With uniform pieces easy to knead and mix into dough, it's the "put inside" type for ice cream, cookies, pound cake, granola, cereal bars, and more... -
Commercial Freeze-Dried Strawberry | How to Choose Shape and Growing Region
Freeze-dried strawberry is a commercial ingredient adopted in confectionery, baking, granola, chocolate, and gifts. Because it rapidly freezes 90%-water strawberries and then dries them by vacuum sublimation, it becomes lightweight and long-term-storable while retaining color, aroma, and shape. When choosing for commercial use, shape, raw material... -
Freeze-Drying Processing Costs | Price Ranges by Product and Lot
Freeze-drying processing cost ranges vary greatly by the material's moisture content, yield, lot scale, shape (whole / slice / dice / powder), and packaging specification. Finished-product types (miso soup, soup, zenzai) run 80–500 yen per serving, and material types (freeze-dried strawberry, fruit powder... -
Freeze-Drying Minimum Lots: Small-Lot Ordering and Choosing a Manufacturer
The first snag in placing an OEM order for freeze-drying processing is the minimum-lot wall. For fruits such as strawberry and mango, it's common to require an order of around 500kg of fresh raw material, which becomes a major hurdle for prototyping-stage small D2C and SME manufacturers. This article covers, for material... -
Freeze-Dried Material Ranking | Popularity and How to Choose by Use
Freeze-drying is a drying technology whose adoption is spreading in confectionery, beverages, nutritional foods, and instant foods. Unlike hot-air drying, it sublimates and removes only the moisture without heating, so the material's original color, aroma, and shape tend to remain—freeze-dried strawberry, miso soup, zenzai, and other "hot water or..." -
How to Use Fruit Powder | Substitution Design for Confectionery and Sweets
Fruit powder is an ingredient made by powdering fruits such as strawberry, mango, blueberry, apple, pear, yuzu, and banana. In confectionery, sweets, drinks, and nutritional foods, for formulations where fresh fruit or flesh is hard to use (dough or cream where you don't want to add moisture, products premised on heating or long-term storage... -
What is freeze-dried? A gentle explanation of the drying technology spreading to miso soup, vegetables, and strawberries
ネット通販やお土産屋さんでよく目にする、チョコレートがかかったいちごのお菓子。インバウンド需要もあって人気の商品ですが、あの軽くてサクッとしたいちごはフリーズドライで作られています。 フリーズドライは、非常食やアウトドアだけでなく、インス... -
What Are Dried Goods? The Secret of Their Nutritional Value and Uses in the Modern Diet
Agriture partners with farmers around the world, promoting fair trade and sustainable agriculture. Through high-quality agricultural products, we run a fair trade business connecting producers and consumers. -
Kyoto-style food development | Gift-oriented product development OEM using Kyoto vegetables
Gift food OEM using Kyoto ingredients is a field that lets you add the value of the “Kyoto brand” to products—value that product development in other regions cannot deliver. In addition to Kyoto vegetables such as Kujo green onion, Shogoin daikon, Kamo eggplant, and Manganji pepper, and up to the pickles, tsukudani, Kyoto sweets, and dashi that Kyoto’s food culture has nurtured, ingredients... -
Creating a regional brand with a Kyoto-vegetable OEM | The complete flow from planning to sales
Powder processing of Kyoto vegetables is one of the few options that lets you translate a regional brand into a product at the raw-material level. Kujo green onion, Manganji pepper, Shogoin daikon, Kyo-kurenai carrot, Mizuo yuzu—the heirloom vegetables Kyoto has long nurtured excel in every respect: color, aroma, and story. Food OEM... -
Kyoto ingredient processing OEM | How to make the most of Kyoto vegetables and quality control
The strength of requesting ingredient-processing OEM in Kyoto lies in access to Kyoto vegetables, heirloom vegetables, and Kyoto-grown ingredients, and in a quality-control system backed by the culture of long-established makers and artisans. By combining processing techniques such as drying, powdering, and extract extraction with Kyoto-grown ingredients, you get something beyond mere OEM manufacturing—a... -
Dried Kujo green onion powder | Usage ideas and how to choose it as a food OEM raw material
Dried Kujo Negi powder is a commercial raw material made by drying and finely powdering the Kyoto heirloom vegetable "Kujo negi." Compared with white negi types, it has a gentler aroma and stronger sweetness, with a vivid green retained all the way to the leaf tips—it is adopted in food OEM for topping instant noodles, furikake, and adding color and aroma to baked-good dough... -
How to Choose Commercial Kujo Negi: Comparing Fresh, Frozen, and Dried
Commercial Kujo negi distributes "Kujo negi," one of the traditional vegetables that represents Kyoto, in three types—fresh, frozen, and dried—as a raw material for ramen shops, food manufacturers, boxed-lunch factories, and the like to use stably. To make the most of its distinctive sweetness and aroma and deep green, the optimal form for each use... -
How to source commercial vegetable powder in small lots, and how to use it
Wanting to source commercial vegetable powder in small lots—this is a challenge common to a wide range of businesses: restaurants, food manufacturers, EC operators, confectionery workshops, and more. The unit-price benefit of bulk sourcing is appealing, but considering inventory risk, loss at the prototyping stage, and cash flow, “first, at a scale of about 5–50 kg... -
ネギの種類と違い一覧｜長ねぎ・白ねぎ・青ねぎ・九条ねぎ・わけぎの使い分け
The Types and Classification of Japan's Negi | Broadly Divided into 3 Lineages. Negi is a vegetable essential to the Japanese table, but its varieties are astonishingly diverse. From what's sold as "naga-negi" at supermarkets, to the Kyoto heirloom vegetable "Kujo negi," to Gunma Prefecture's "Shimonita negi," and even Western leeks... -
Heirloom vegetable OEM | A commercialization case guide using Kyoto vegetables and local ingredients
Right now, product development that makes use of “regional individuality” is drawing attention. Among these, foods using heirloom vegetables and Kyoto vegetables are strongly supported for the gift market and inbound-oriented products, thanks to their visual beauty and rarity. Especially now, with inbound tourists increasing, region... -
野菜パウダーとは？特徴・保存性・使い方とOEM活用ガイド
野菜を毎日しっかり摂ることは大切と分かっていても、調理の手間や保存の難しさから、忙しい日々の中でつい後回しになりがちです。そんな食生活を支える食材として注目されているのが「野菜パウダー」です。野菜を粉末状にすることで、水分が抜けてかさが... -
What is vegetable paste? The difference from powder, dried vegetables, purée, and extract
Vegetable paste is a food ingredient made by heating and grinding fresh vegetables into a paste (a smooth, semi-solid form). Its high moisture content gives it a mellow mouthfeel, and it is used in sauces, baby food, sweets, and dressings. On the other hand, vegetable powder, dried vegetables, pi... -
Solve picky eating too! 3 ideas for commercializing vegetable powder you can keep up every day
Getting plenty of vegetables every day is the foundation of health. But in reality, many people can't get enough vegetables for reasons such as "I'm too busy to spend time cooking," "my kids dislike vegetables and won't eat them," or "I just don't like the taste." Against that backdrop... -
The appeal of domestic yuzu | Features by growing region and points for choosing
With the arrival of winter, fragrant yuzu colors the Japanese table. In hot-pot ponzu, as a scent for clear soups, as yuzu tea. Its refreshing aroma and refined tartness are deeply rooted in Japanese food culture. But when you pick one up at the supermarket, have you ever felt this question? "Whi... -
The success formula for yuzu product development | The process from planning to sales
Do you know the success story of Umaji Village in Kochi Prefecture? A small village with a population of fewer than 1,000 achieved annual sales of 3 billion yen with yuzu processed products. Overcoming the crisis of forestry's decline, it accomplished a miraculous revival through product development that made the most of local resources. Behind this success lay meticulous product planning... -
The global expansion of yuzu | Strategies for success in overseas markets
"Yuzu," the scent of Japan that the world is watching. Did you know this yuzu is beloved worldwide? This aromatic citrus, cultivated mainly in the Shikoku region including Kochi and Tokushima Prefectures, is now establishing an international brand as "Yuzu." Along with the washoku boom, its overseas recognition... -
The yuzu harvest season explained | How to tell green yuzu from yellow yuzu
Do you know the importance of knowing yuzu's harvest season? Yuzu is one of Japan's representative aromatic citrus fruits, and its refreshing aroma and refined tartness are indispensable to cooking. But did you know that getting the harvest timing wrong greatly diminishes its taste and aroma? In fact, yuzu has... -
ゆずの種類と使い方｜皮と果汁の活かし方・香りの特徴を解説
冬の訪れとともに、私たちの食卓を彩るゆず。 その爽やかな香りと上品な酸味は、鍋料理のポン酢や柚子茶として親しまれています。香りは主に果皮にあり、果汁とはまた違った使い方ができるのがゆずの魅力です。 本記事では、ゆずの種類や香り・風味の特徴... -
International Food Logistics EXPO
「国際 食品物流EXPO（Food LogiX）」は、食品の輸出入・国内配送・保管・包装・輸出入コンサルティングまで、食品を「運ぶ・預かる・届ける」工程を担う事業者が集まる専門展示会です。国際 食品・飲料商談Week「JFEX」の一角として東京ビッグサイトで開... -
Regional Bank Food Selection
「地方銀行フードセレクション」は、全国の地方銀行が取引先である地域の食品事業者を集め、その販路開拓をまとめて後押しする商談型の展示会です。出展するのは各地の生産者・食品メーカーで、来場するのは食品スーパー・百貨店・外食・卸などの仕入担当...
