Food loss at 4.64 million tons, a record low | Business-related loss falls below household-related for the first time

In June 2025, the Ministry of the Environment released the food-loss figures for FY2023 (2023). The total wasAbout 4.64 million tons, down 80,000 tons from the previous year (4.72 million tons) and a record low since estimates began. Business-related loss came to roughly 2.31 million tons and household loss to roughly 2.33 million tons—the first time business loss fell below household loss.

Why Reduction Accelerated

The drop in business-related food loss was driven by efforts across three areas: distribution, food service, and manufacturing. Wider markdown selling by major convenience-store chains, the spread of small-portion menus at restaurant chains, and longer best-before dates set by food makers all converged. The reduction of manufacturing loss at the production stage was especially notable, and the practice of using off-grade goods as raw material is spreading.

The government's targets are "a 60% cut in business-related loss and a halving of household loss by FY2030 versus FY2000." Food loss in FY2000 is estimated at roughly 10 million tons, and the current 4.64 million tons has reached about the halfway mark. With only four years left to the target year, however, reaching it requires sustained cuts of about 300,000 tons per year.

Making Good Use of Off-Grade Vegetables Directly Cuts Waste

At the agricultural production stage, an estimated 2 million tons of vegetables that fall short of size or shape standards are discarded each year. Drying or milling these off-grade items into powder lets them circulate as food ingredients with almost zero waste.

The relationship between non-standard vegetables and food loss | Solutions and case studies, as explained, using off-grade produce goes beyond mere cost reduction—it delivers a compound benefit of stabilizing farmers' incomes, cutting disposal costs, and lowering CO₂ emissions.

Drying is a particularly effective way to use off-grade vegetables. Removing moisture cuts weight to about one-tenth and enables room-temperature distribution and long-term storage.What is dried vegetables' method of making? An explanation of the production flow and the ingenuity for "vegetables unsuited to drying", as covered in detail, irregular shapes pose no problem in the drying process—and for powder processing, shape does not matter at all.

The Next Move for Food Makers

As reducing food loss becomes a social imperative, food makers are asked to address two fronts: a "waste-free production system" and a "mechanism for accepting waste-bound raw materials." The more actively a company brings off-grade and unused items into its procurement stage, the more it can cut raw-material costs and advance decarbonization at the same time.

One approach drawing attention is turning off-grade vegetables into powder and converting them into ingredients for supplements and seasonings.Solve picky eating too! 3 ideas for commercializing vegetable powder you can keep up every day, as touched on, vegetable powder can be deployed across a wide range of categories—food, beverages, confectionery—and demand for it as an OEM product is rising.

Also,Notable upcycle food brands | A sustainable choice, as shown, the concept of "upcycling"—turning items bound for disposal into new products—has already become a branding axis. As consumers' sustainability orientation strengthens, upcycled products that disclose the origin of their raw materials become a weapon for differentiation.

Industry-Wide Moves Toward the 2030 Target

The Ministry of the Environment has signaled that it will strengthen reporting obligations for food businesses while running consumer-awareness campaigns in parallel. The day when data-based loss management becomes standard across manufacturing, distribution, and food service is near.

For food makers, food-loss reduction is no longer mere compliance but a field that creates business opportunities on both the procurement-cost and product-development fronts. Building a system to accept off-grade raw materials and adding value through processing technology will be an important point of differentiation in the food OEM market ahead.

(Reference:Ministry of the Environment, "Release of Estimated Food Loss Volume in Japan (FY2023)," June 2025）