Vegetable Shortage Among Japanese People Widens | The Reality of Not Reaching the 350g Target

Upcycled food is a strategy that achieves three things at once: cutting food loss, meeting the SDGs, and raising brand value. Drying off-grade vegetables or turning them into powder is a measure that can be taken at relatively low cost, and it is a field that is easy for smaller makers to enter.

Release of Estimated Food Loss Volume (FY2023) – Ministry of the Environment

The vegetable-intake target set by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is 350g a day. Yet per the latest National Health and Nutrition Survey, the Japanese average stays at about 280g, hovering at around 80% of target for years. How to fill this "70g wall" is becoming a new theme for the food industry.The Reality of Missing the Target Across All AgesWhat's serious in the National Health and Nutrition Survey data is that no age group reaches the target. In particular, the working-age generation in their 20s to 40s takes in only 60–74% of target, and

vegetable deficiency among busy working peoplehas become a structural problem.It also can't be overlooked that this situation hasn't improved for over a decade. Lifestyle changes—the hassle of cooking, dependence on eating out, the rise in single-person households—are accelerating vegetable avoidance.

are sought, but the conventional "let's eat a salad" has its limits.

Business Opportunities Opening Up for Food Makers

Relieving vegetable deficiency is a major market opportunity for food makers. There are three approaches worth watching.Vegetable powderFirst,

the use of. As powder products that let you easily take in vegetable nutrition as smoothies, soups, or confectionery materials, they meet vegetable deficiency without the hassle of cooking, and demand is growing.Next, turning dried vegetables into snacks.Healthy snacks that harnessthe nutritional value of dried foodscan meet snacking demand and a health orientation at once. Corporate demand can be expected too, as

healthy snacks for the office. And product design that supports"vegetables first." Appetizer-style dried-vegetable products aligned with the health practice of eating vegetables first are drawing more inquiries from companies promoting health and productivity management.

Summary

Japanese vegetable deficiency is a structural challenge unresolved for over a decade. That is precisely why there is a business opportunity in dried-vegetable and vegetable-powder products that reconcile convenience and nutrition. Making products that reach health-conscious consumers will grow ever more important.

References:Release of the 2023 National Health and Nutrition Survey Results – Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare