Photo/Illutration Nipponham Southwest Ltd.’s meat-based retort-pouch emergency food products are available in four varieties. Clockwise from top left: stewed hamburger steak, sweet simmered chicken with root vegetables, grilled chicken and pork sausage steak. (Yusuke Hoshino)

HYUGA, Miyazaki Prefecture--Pilot bread, dried cooked rice, cereals and crystal sugar: emergency food provisions tend to bulk up on carbohydrates, the ultimate energy store.

But during a prolonged evacuation, people also tend to crave meat for protein to keep their strength up.

Nipponham Southwest Ltd. makes retort-pouch food products based on combat rations used by the Self-Defense Forces.

Based in Hyuga, Miyazaki Prefecture, the company developed four emergency food products: pork sausage steak, stewed hamburger steak, grilled chicken and sweet simmered chicken with root vegetables.

The Asahi Shimbun assigned a reporter to sample the meals by taking a tour given by Yoshito Nakajima, the company’s head of processed foods development, and Akinobu Ando from the general affairs and personnel division.

AND TASTY, TOO

At 9 centimeters across and 1.5 cm thick, the sausage steak was good.

The hamburger steak had a palatably coarse-ground texture and crispy onion.

The grilled chicken bore slight burns on the surface that suggested attention to cooking. Its ginger aroma was appetizing.

The sweet simmered dish beckoned with the fragrance of chicken meat and the fiber-richness of root vegetables.

Nakajima, 47, and Ando, 29, explained that the meals are based on combat rations that Nipponham Southwest supplied to the SDF.

Some staff members pointed out that the company’s emergency food rations were too heavy on carbohydrates and proposed more protein-rich options.

Nipponham Southwest began commercial sales of the four varieties, which had been popular with SDF members, in 2022.

But unlike the combat rations, the food pouches sold to the public are seasoned with different salt levels for a better taste.

Their best-before dates were set at five-and-a-half years from production, as opposed to only one or two years for typical retort-pouch food products.

The emergency provision products are good to eat just as they are, even though they become tastier when warmed in hot water.

The packages carry photos of SDF troops on missions in disaster areas and elsewhere. A total of 660,000 packages comprising all four varieties sold in 2024.

The top seller is the hamburger steak, officials said.

IN AN EMERGNCY

Located on the coast of Miyazaki Prefecture, the company’s manufacturing plant in Hyuga faces the prospect of huge damage from a tsunami in the event of a megaquake striking along the Nankai Trough seabed depression.

Nakajima said he is aware of the risk, not least because he experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake when he worked at a plant in Chikusei, Ibaraki Prefecture, 14 years ago.

He initially heard the ground rumbling before the the strong jolting hit. He went outdoors to find walls collapsed and the power supply to the plant cut off.

Nakajima was transferred to Hyuga only this past spring, but he has already sorted out where his family members should take shelter in the event of a disaster.

His emergency kit contains his employer’s meat-based retort-pouch food products, stuffed into openings.

“These products don’t take up a lot of space and don’t weigh much,” he said. “I don’t think people should endure inconvenience just because they have been caught up in a disaster. I think they should be able to enjoy, if they can, something good to eat so they can summon up the courage to keep at it a little longer. That’s what I have in mind when I develop products.”

Nipponham Southwest donated 1,000 packages of its products, for emergency stocks, to Hyuga city authorities in February.

The suggested retail price per package is 598 yen ($4.03), which includes tax. The pouches are available in emergency supplies sections at volume retailers as well as through online retailing.

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