HI Japan 2019

WATCH: The evolution of Japan’s US$2.5 billion Foods with Function claims market

24-Oct-2019 - Last updated on 28-Sep-2021 at 13:48 GMT

Four years after its launch, Japan’s Food with Function market now encompasses 2,409 products with the sector set to hit the US$2.5 billion mark this year.

The FFC system was first introduced in April 2015, to differentiate existing product claims such as the Foods for Specified Health Uses (FOSHU) And Foods With Nutrient Function Claims (FNFC).

Speaking to Label Bank’s chief executive officer, Hiroyuki Kawai at the recent Health Ingredients exhibition held in Tokyo, he said the FFC system had brought about a new management strategy that required scientific evidence based on clinical trials or systematic reviews.

Label Bank is a company specialising in food labelling regulation.

He thinks the FFC market may be disadvantaged for small business scale companies, as qualified scientific expertise is necessary.

While the number of FFC products are expected to increase over the next few years, Kawai had some doubts: “I heard that there might be a drop off also due to the complicated procedure to enter the FFC market.”

He said it was important to understand the different Food with Health Claims labelling system, as well as the use of additives, to succeed in the Japanese market.

Keep watching to find out more.

This video was made with Lumen5.