Japan has had a problem with food waste for a while. However, it’s also one of the countries that’s most aggressively tackled the problem. Now, Japan’s government has announced it’ll take the next step in its battle against waste by changing its approach to food expiration dates.
Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA), as reported by Asahi Shimbun, is setting new criteria for both expiry dates (消費期限; shouhi kigen), the date before which food can be safely consumed; and freshness dates (賞味期限), the date for eating the food at peak flavor.
The CAA will specify that manufacturers should use a safety coefficient closer to 1 in their freshness and expiration dating tests, which will lengthen the expiry date on most current packaging. The safety coefficient provides a safety buffer by shortening a product’s measured expiration date. For example, if a product has a 10-day shelf life, a safety coefficient of 0.7 means the expiration date is seven days.
Additionally, the government will specify that businesses that use freshness dates make clear what the date means so that consumers know food is still safe to consume past that date. It’s also encouraging businesses to put recommendations on packaging for how food can be kept consumable past its freshness date.
The concrete guidelines are still being firmed up in a committee that is currently meeting up to March. The government expects to announce the changes that month.
A long battle against food waste – with results
Japan has long ranked high on the United Nations Environment Program’s (UNEP) Food Waste Index. In the most recent 2024 report, UNEP says it wastes around 64kg of food per capita – more than the US at 59kg.
It’s a somewhat embarrassing development for a country that prides itself on a culture of mottainai, or not being wasteful. As Deeper Japan discusses, there are multiple reasons for this contradiction. Structural issues and the drive to maximize profits play a role, for example.
A huge driving factor is risk aversion. Until now, the recommended safety coefficient factor for freshness dating has been under 1. However, writes food waste journalist Ide Rumi, many manufacturers set it even lower, down as low as 0.3. Ide says she’s even seen frozen food products whose producers set the coefficient to 0.7. For a product that might, e.g., have a 10-month shelf life, that reduces the freshness date down to seven months.
Ide says Japanese companies, which are inherently risk-averse, prefer these strict dates in order to avoid potential claims around food-borne illnesses. Similarly, most restaurants here refuse to let customers take food home with them due to fears of food poisoning.
To its vast credit, Japan’s government has taken these issues seriously for years and has worked overtime to reduce its food waste. UNEP rates Japan as one of the countries with high confidence in its food waste estimates. Japan’s Ministry of the Environment has used waste composition data and other data points to track food waste meticulously for years.
As a result, according to UNEP, the country has reduced its food waste from 2008 to 2019 by 29 percent. It’s made the most progress in reducing consumer food waste – which, according to UNEP, is the primary source of waste in every country. As of the 2024 report, Japan has reduced total food waste by 31%.
There’s still work to be done, however. 33% of the food waste in Japan is considered edible. That makes the changes to expiration dates an important step towards achieving further reductions.
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