In order to ensure the food safety, every country has established the corresponding food safety standards. However, how to solve the ensuing problem of the expired food? Japan’s practices maybe enlighten us in some respects.

Japan is very strict in the implementation of food hygiene standards. All food must be sold within the expiration date. Once expired, they have to be discarded. It is estimated that the expired food disposed in Japan amount to 20 million tons every year, 5 times the quantity of the food used for global poverty aid in 2007. Also, Japan used to apply landfill for the disposal of the expired food, inevitably producing greenhouse gas harmful to the environment.

Today, the huge waste of the expired food concerns more and more people in Japan. Ya-Kou-Hweng-Xying, who used to be a trash truck driver, was so upset of dumping large quantity of the expired food that he decided to make a career change and started a business specialized in the recycling of the expired food. Now, his company has become the biggest feed producer in Japan. Every day, hundreds of tons of rice bolls, sandwiches from 1200 convenience stores of 7-11 have been transported to the factory located in the suburb of Tokyo, and transformed into animal feed over there. Compared with the regular feed, the price of the expired food product is 50% lower, which attracts farmers very much. Consequently the market demand is increasing gradually.

At the same time, the Japanese government has also introduced a new law to stimulate the development of expired food recycling industry by raising the food recycling index for all enterprises whose annual production of expired food reach 100 tons. Till today, 70% of the expired food in Japan could be recycled, among them, 50% as feed, 45% as fertilizer, and the rest are used in the production of methane. The prospects of the recycling industry of expired foods are brightening.

However, not all expired food can be recycled. Considering food quality, the feed producers only accept expired food from stores or restaurants, rather than the leftover on residents’ tables. Also, in order to prevent from “Mad Cow” disease, the expired food products are not used for feeding cattle and sheep.

Source:
http://nc.mofcom.gov.cn/news/5225633.html