'Balanced Diet Guide' Aims to Improve Japan's Food Self-Sufficiency

The Food Self-Sufficiency Enhancement Council, an advisory organ for the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, drew up a fiscal 2005 action program for raising Japan's food self-sufficiency on May 30, 2005. The council was established on April 26, 2005 to implement a Japanese government decision to improve the country's low self-sufficiency ratio for food (currently at about 40 percent on a calorie basis).

In the area of food consumption, the program aims at promoting food education, the use of locally-produced food, and consumption of domestically-grown agricultural products, as well as securing consumer confidence in domestically-produced food. On the agricultural production front, it refers to efforts in promoting production more tailored to consumers¡Ç demand by farmers with superior business acumen, strengthening ties between the food industry and agriculture, and promoting efficient use of farmland.

On June 21, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare jointly released a "balanced diet guide," a food guide, as one effort to promote food education. It illustrates optimal food intake item by item in an easy-to-understand manner.

Directed primarily at adults with a calorie intake of between 2000 and 2400 kilocalories per day, the guide divides food into five categories (staple foods, side dishes, main dishes, milk/dairy products and fruit), and shows combinations of foods and approximate amounts of intake per day in each category. The ministries plan to make posters and leaflets to promote the guide to the public.



Posted: 2005/09/25 11:22:32 AM
Japanese version