Japan has initiated amendments to local food labelling regulations which will see changes to nutrient labelling values.
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The Japanese government has amended labelling regulations based on new consumer data, which will see changes to nutrient labelling values as well as requirements to make on-label nutritional claims.
Japan has announced new amendments to the local Food Labelling Standards, particularly revolving around requirements for standard nutrient labelling values and requirements to be met for manufacturers to make on-label claims.
Standard nutrient labelling values here are in reference to values calculated based on a population-weighted average for nutrient intake according to gender and age, and are used to guide the recommended daily intake values of nutrients for Japanese consumers.
“Based on the most recent data from the Japanese Dietary Intake Standards 2025 report, we will revise the nutrient labelling standard values in the Food Labelling Standards to meet local needs,” Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) stated via a formal statement.
“Some nutrients such as protein (81g per kg compared to 85g previously), calcium (680mg to 700mg) and dietary fibre (19g to 20g) values will be revised upwards; whereas others such as zinc (8.8mg to 8.5mg), sodium (2.9g to 2.7g) and vitamin B1 (1.2mg to 1mg) will be revised downwards.
“This will also impact the standard requirement values that companies making on-label nutritional claims need to meet.
“For example, once this is enforced manufacturers will now have to ensure that their products contain at least 85g of protein per kg in order to display a label indicating ‘high’ protein content, instead of 81g previously.
“For protein and dietary fibre, the label ‘fortified’ will only be permitted for display if the content is 25% or more than the standard value.”
Fortification forward
In addition, CAA intends to mandate labelling for all ingredients used in fortification, where previously not all food products being fortified were required to display the ingredients used for fortification on the label if these were used for nutritional enhancement.
“Previous studies have found that this system where some foods require labelling but some do not has been difficult for consumers to understand, hence we believe that a review of this system is required,” the agency said.
“Additionally, we have found that international standards used in Australia, the EU and general Codex standards all do not make exemptions of this manner.
“As such, we have proposed to remove the provision within the regulations that allow for certain products to be exempt from this labelling, bearing in mind that consumers need to know what food ingredients and/or additives are being used for fortification or nutritional enhancement.”
These changes have been opened to public comment via the government portal e-GOV. More details can be found and all comments can be submitted here (Link in Japanese) until January 28 2025.
Implementation is expected to take place on April 1 2025, with a five-year transition period for fortification-related labelling changes, and a three-year transition for the nutrient labelling standard values.
