Special Features

Even before the concept of NPS had become widespread in Japan, Meiji formulated its Nutrition Statement, clearly communicating its approach to nutrition with the public. I find it wonderful that Meiji, as a food company, is willing to address what they can do so as to contribute to the health of consumers.

On a basis of the Nutrition Statement, it formulated Meiji NPS and put it into practice. Meiji NPS is rooted in Japanese dietary intake standards and nutritional issues, which represented Meiji’s consumer-centric approach.

I have two things to state here.

The First one is updating Meiji NPS continuously. Keep on introducing new knowledge and ideas through new research findings on relationships between nutrition and health.

The second one is to evaluate and improve its products in terms of healthy foods. What I am particularly looking for from Meiji is not to make major changes to its product mix, but to make existing popular products healthier. By doing so, customers will be able to lead healthier eating habits without even being aware of it. On the other hand, eating something that does not taste good, no matter how healthy it may be, is not a habit that will last long. I hope that you will consider the balance between "healthy eating habits" and "the pleasure of eating" as an important theme to be addressed.

There are two aspects for that.

The first point is to disseminate information and raise awareness about nutrition issues. If we continue to overlook nutrition issues in the future, it is foreseeable that our society will be in an undesirable state, with social security costs increased and labor productivity decreased. However, many people are still unaware of them. Meiji, which provides much nutrition to society through the supply of its products, is perhaps one of the companies that understands this challenge the best. For this reason, I hope that Meiji will take the lead in disseminating information and raising awareness about nutrition issues. In order to address nutrition issues, it is important to consider regional characteristics. Food culture has regional traits, and genetic conditions also differs from region to region. It is important to take such regional differences into consideration in order to solve nutritional issues around the world. Meiji has been extensively involved in the food cultures of various regions, including Japan, Asia, Europe, and the United States, and I am convinced that you are highly awareness of the differences in food cultures across the world. I would very much like to see the company actively communicate the nutritional situation in each region and link this to the health of people around the world.

The second is to use the Meiji NPS as a new approach to product development. The traditional approach has been to survey consumer interest in health and nutrition and market products based on the results. However, what is required of food companies today is to discover issues that consumers are not yet aware of and to create innovations that solve those issues. To do this, they need a scale to identify potential challenges, and the Meiji NPS should play that role. I think it is important to use the Meiji NPS to find ideal solutions to issues that have not been recognized as challenges, or that have been recognized as challenges but considered difficult to face, and to challenge innovation.