Japan Focus: BRAND’s Suntory strategies for chicken essence business, Kewpie’s plans to expand functional salad dressings and more in the spotlight
BRAND’s Suntory and Essence of Chicken: Proven health claims critical for sales growth
BRAND’s Suntory will focus on conducting new clinical studies and applying for health claims labelling as key strategies to strengthen its essence of chicken business.
The firm saw a 3% growth in sales from last year to this year in Taiwan – its second largest market – after reaping the benefits of the country’s dual health claims system, Dr Yoshihiro Nakao, vice-president and head of Scientific Research and Application told NutraIngredients-Asia.
The two health claims are namely 1) to speed up the recovery after strenuous exercise and 2) to improve the immune system.
Dressing up: Kewpie expands sales of Japanese functional salad dressings
Kewpie will expand the Japanese sales of its three functional salad dressings, which seek to offer blood pressure and fat absorption benefits, from Tokyo to Hokkaido, Tohoku, Niigata, and Nagano.
The salad dressings are "sesame dressing with linseed oil," "Japanese style onion dressing," and "lemon and acerola dressing."
Takamasa Hayashi from Kewpie’s seasoning department told NutraIngredients-Asia: “Sales have been steady since the launch in July 2017.”
Deer doze: Japanese firm reformulates sleep aid supplement based on TCM concept
Japanese company Health Business Info is on a mission to expand the use of sika deer in dietary supplements, using it as a key ingredient to aid sleep based on a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) concept.
Key parts of the sika deer including the skin, horns, and placenta, have now been added to the formulation of Nemurira, the firm’s line of sleep aid supplements, based on a concept posited by Chinese physician Li Shizhen – the author of TCM classic Compendium of Materia Medica (Bencao Gangmu).
Li’s theory was that consuming deer skin can nourish the blood and qi (energy), while consuming deer placenta can clear the body from toxins.
Mimicking mother’s milk: Morinaga Milk Industry to focus on probiotic applications in infant formula
Japanese dairy giant Morinaga Milk Industry, a probiotic strains supplier, has plans in the upcoming year around to expand the application of its functional proprietary probiotic strain into infant formula, to aid with gut health and immune protection.
Morinaga’s Bifidobacterium longum BB536 strain was first isolated from the gut of a healthy breastfed infant in 1969 and commercialised in 1977.
BB536 is a clinically proven multifunctional probiotic strain and is based on more than 180 scientific studies done over the years.
Aeon’s Welcia-BHG embarks on five-year expansion mission in Singapore on the back of double digit growth
Welcia-BHG, the drugstore owned by Japanese conglomerate Aeon Group, is expanding its footprint in Singapore with plans to open 29 outlets in five years.
Famous for selling a wide range of Japan-imported dietary supplements and beauty products, the drugstore first entered Singapore – also the only South East Asian country that it operates in – in 2017.
In the past 1.5 years, it has established six outlets in the country, bringing in dietary supplements from AEON’s in-house brand Topvalu and other Japanese supplement brands such as HapYcom through exclusive retail agreements.
