Current situation and perspectives of ready-to-eat food/meal suppliers

Working Group 2 of the Healthy Diet Research Committee of International Life Sciences Institute Japan (WG2) assessed the concept and practice of healthy eating in the ready-to-eat food/meal industry in Japan. WG2 interviewed 14 arbitrarily selected member companies that included "health" or "nutrition" in their management policy, and sent a questionnaire to 338 member companies of the Japan Ready-Made Meal Association. Ready-to-eat food/meal suppliers mainly referred to Dietary Reference Intakes for Japanese, the Japanese Food Guide, and/or Healthy Japan 21 for their menu construction. They increased dietary fiber, variety, vegetables, whole-grain cereals, millet rice, and soy bean products; and reduced energy, carbohydrates, and salt in "healthy" food. They tended to avoid making direct appeals to health. Many companies reduced the salt content without drawing attention to the practice. They continually strive to improve flavor as the single most important factor for selling healthy food. The cycling of menus is used to increase diversity in food consumption. These industries require both academia and the government to define priorities for increasing and decreasing particular nutrients as the main targets and to establish the maximum time for balancing each nutrient.