Photo/Illutration Alpha rice for emergencies is placed in a container as "food waste" in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Aug. 22. (Nobufumi Yamada)

Although rice shortages have left supermarket shelves bare, tons of the grain are thrown out every day.

The stock of staple rice held by agricultural cooperatives and wholesalers hit a record low of 1.56 million tons at the end of June.

But rice continues to be sent to the Japan Food Ecology Center in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, and labeled as “food loss.”

On the morning of Aug. 22, the center collected a significant quantity of rice and onigiri (rice balls) from food factories and supermarkets.

The contents of bento boxes from convenience stores were removed from the packages and placed in a container.

The center collects food waste from about 200 companies and recycles it into pig feed.

Around 40 tons of food, mostly carbohydrates, are collected each day. Around 20 percent of the total, or roughly 8 tons, is rice, according to the center.

Food factories often cook more rice than needed to avoid running out and missing orders for bento boxes and rice balls. The center collects the leftover rice.

The rice collected at the center comes mainly from Kanagawa Prefecture and the Tama area of western Tokyo. The center cannot cover huge consumption areas, such as Tokyo’s 23 wards.

“We can only recycle a portion of the food. A lot of it still gets thrown away,” Koichi Takahashi, the center’s president, said.

A RICE BALL A DAY

Food waste has been declining nationwide.
According to a report by the Consumer Affairs Agency, the highest amount of food waste over the past 10 years was the estimated 6.46 million tons in fiscal 2015.

The volume had dropped to 4.72 million tons in fiscal 2022.

Of that amount, 2.36 million tons consisted of unsold food and leftovers from food companies, while 2.36 million tons came from households.

The figures mean that one person wastes an average of 38 kg a year, or nearly one 103-gram rice ball a day.

The center records daily food waste from each company, compiles the data and shares the statistics to help the companies reduce waste.

Over the past few years, this has led to a 10 to 20 percent reduction in waste, but the center says more can be done.

“While we can buy food everywhere, opportunities to learn about what actually happens in agriculture are decreasing,” Takahashi said. “Food loss, which should be close to consumers, is becoming something they see as someone else’s problem.”

The waste collected at the center includes cooked rice and alpha rice, which is often used for emergency and disaster preparedness.

Journalist Rumi Ide, who is well-versed in food waste issues, said some rice is thrown away due to damaged packaging during transport or because it has been sitting on store shelves for too long after milling.

“Companies are ordering more rice than they can sell to avoid ‘opportunity loss,’ fearing products won’t be available when consumers want to buy them,” Ide said.

“Consumers also take it for granted that they can get fresh products at all times, which contributes to still-edible but older products being removed from shelves,” she said. “These business practices should also be re-examined.”

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