Spinning a New Shape of "Eating Pleasure" with the Next Generation

When you hear the name Nippon Ham, you probably think of the meat processing industry, as represented by Chawesen. In fact, Nippon Ham is also a company that has led the way in efforts to provide safe, high-quality meat, from raising livestock on its own farms to processing and marketing its products in an integrated manner. The key word that Nippon Ham considers necessary for future research is "freedom. In this interview, we asked five members of the Nippon Ham Central Research Institute about the future they are aiming for and their thoughts on working with the next generation.

80 years with a mission to deliver protein

Nippon Ham began in 1942 at a meat factory in Tokushima. For more than 80 years since then, the company has been pursuing and providing "protein," an essential source of nutrition for human beings, through the supply of meat. Today, the Nippon Ham Group supplies approximately 61 TP3T of the protein intake of the Japanese people. In order to continue to provide protein safely and securely, the company has also continued research and development, and has three research laboratories. One of them, the Central Research Laboratory, functions as "a laboratory for creating new businesses for the future. To date, the Central Research Laboratory has been involved in a number of novel research projects, such as smart pig farming, cell-based foods (cultured meat), food allergies, and nutritional support for athletes, so that more people can enjoy food safely. Mr. Hasegawa says, "We have a mission to continue to deliver high-quality protein into the future.

Want to deal with diverse values

I believe that food should be safe, secure, enjoyable, and meaningful at all times and for all people. Nippon Ham has set "The Joy of Eating" as its corporate philosophy and aims to realize it," said Mr. Hasegawa. Furthermore, Okuda believes that because each generation has different values and the joy of eating has shifted with the times, we must conduct our research with more freedom of thought. However, there are limits to what our generation can come up with on its own. We want to know what the next generation is thinking about food and think about the future together with them. With this in mind, Nippon Ham decided to exhibit a booth at the Science Castle and participate in this research fund in order to accelerate research and development with the next generation.

Impressions and Expectations at Science Castle 2023

Nippon Ham exhibited a booth at the 2023 Science Castle Kanto Conference under the theme "Let's design the future of food with your voice." The theme was to imagine the excitement of food that awaits us in 2050, and gather ideas to create a tree. Before setting up the booth, he was a little apprehensive about how interested the younger generation would be in food, but when the day actually arrived, more than 100 participants offered their ideas. Aoki says, "I was impressed by the fact that junior high and high school students were thinking about social issues related to food, taking what they had learned and researched in school and making it their own. It was a moment that strengthened his desire to listen to their voices and pursue the "joy of eating" together with them through the research grant.

There is a future that can be envisioned because it is with the next generation.

The theme of the Science Castle Research Fund is "More Freedom for the Future of Food. 〜Research to create new forms of food. Mr. Hasegawa says, "We want the younger generation to apply with a free spirit. He would like to see research on food experiences and food scenes, such as virtual restaurants, as well as research on new foods, such as cellular foods, insect foods, and space foods, which were topics of discussion at last year's Science Castle. And it is not only the future research themes themselves that they are looking forward to seeing in the next generation. Aoki and Asazato are looking forward to seeing up close what the next generation of researchers have in mind when they set their research themes, and how they plan to reach a bright future. The challenge of the passionate next-generation researchers is the key to realizing the bright future of food that Nippon Ham aims for.