Japan Food Service Journal articles from March 2003

Japan Food Service Journal archives from March 2003

Restaurants enrich dinner menus.(sales down 5%)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... With year-to-year sales down 5%, restaurant chains such as family restaurants and pubs are expanding their dinner menus and service to get customers back from takeout shops typically found in department store basements. Denny's Japan has...

Quick pasta becomes popular.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Quick-cooking pasta has become popular at restaurant chains and home. Technical advances have made pasta fast to prepare with very even results. Soho's Hospitality Group has opened the quick pasta restaurant Te in Harajuku, Tokyo. The...

Royal Host installs drink bar in restaurants.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Royal is installing self service drink bars at more of its Royal Host family restaurants. When the first bars went in at 59 restaurants last autumn, it brought in more customers, so 110 more shops are following suit. Royal Host's drink...

Ichibanya starts special spaghetti shop.(Pasta de CoCo)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Ichibanya, known for its 830 CoCo Ichibanya curry shops, has started Pasta de CoCo, a spaghetti restaurant chain. The new chain reflects the fact that the market is saturated with curry shops. The shop serves ankake spaghetti, which is...

Pepper Food Service builds steak restaurant chain.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Pepper Food Service plans to open 129 new Pepper Lunch steak restaurants including franchise shops by the end of 2005. The company plans to open 29 shops by December 2003. Fourteen of them will be at food courts in commercial buildings. Fifty...

Marin Food releases Beurre Compose de Paris margarine with herbs.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Marin Food has released Beurre Compose de Paris, a margarine product with herbs. With the product it is easy to make real French butter-based Beurre Compose sauce. The product is made of soft margarine blended with butter and fresh cream and...

Unimat Offisco starts French brand self-service tea shops.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Office coffee service company Unimat Offisco has started a self-service tea shop featuring the French brand Ninas and further plans to sell Ninas brand tea at food floors of department stores. In the tea shops, the customer orders and pays at...

Juchheim starts German baumkuchen specialty shop.(layered cake)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... German confection manufacturer Juchheim has started a baumkuchen specialty shop at department store food floors. The Juchheim Die Meister Baumkuchen Shop sells only baumkuchen (layered cake), which is called the king of confections in...

Nissei releases compact soft cream server.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Nissei has released a compact, automatically disinfecting soft cream server, the NA-1208AE. The server measures just 378mm wide x 612mm deep x 741mm in height with the main body height at 623mm. It is easy to operate, safe and economical at...

McDonald's Holdings Japan announces final loss of 2.3 billion yen.(for FY2002)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... McDonald's Holdings Japan has announced its final consolidated accounts for FY2002 with a loss of 2.3 billion yen. McDonald's thus absorbs its first such loss in 29 years. Sales have been poor and current profit has fallen greatly....

Nihon Shokuhin Kako develops food additive to keep food moist.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Nihon Shokuhin Kako has developed food additive More Fresh 21. When the product is added to food such as bread dough, it prevents evaporation of water caused by temperature change and time. It is made of glucomannan (the main ingredient of...

Allergy Symptom Reducing Green Tea.(from Asahi Soft Drinks and Yasaichagyo Kenkyujo )
March 25, 2003... Beverage giant Asahi Soft Drinks in conjunction with its subsidiary Yasaichagyo Kenkyujo has announced the development of a green tea product with allergy symptom reducing properties. Good news for the estimated 30 million allergy sufferers...

High Pressure Food Sterilisation.(CGC to sell 'Hakkoku Gohan')(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Tokyo based CGC has begun the sale of "Hakkoku Gohan" a boiled rice meal containing a mixture of 8 other grains. The product is unique in that it has been sterilised using an independently developed high pressure sterilisation method that...

GM Modified Tear Free Onions.(genetically modified onions)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... House Foods have announced the discovery of the enzyme and the associated gene required in the production of tears, opening the possibility for the production of a "tears free onion". While it has been possible up to now to eliminate the...

Bringing Okinawa's products to the rest of Japan: Ito En Sangyo.(marine and agricultural products)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... The Koryu Kai, a group of 470 Japanese companies that is sponsored by Ito En Sangyo of the Ito En Group, is marketing novel Okinawan marine and agricultural products throughout Japan. The group's primary goal is to reinforce the faltering...

Collapsible bottle from Usui Kogyo Kenkyujo preserves content, saves space.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Usui Kogyo Kenkyujo has created and patented the Akkaisei (collapsible) Plastic Bottle, designed like a bellows to crush into a compact size but also recover for reuse. The bottle could be used to hold oxygen-sensitive products like cooking...

Fuji Oil expands licensing of LL Yoki container.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Fuji Oil has supplied its LL Yoki container, with PP body and polycarbonate lid, to supermarkets, convenience stores and home delivery businesses, but is currently expanding its licensing of the technology to other companies. The container is...

Tachibana supplying PET/PP containers for nori.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Tachibana, long known as a supplier of containers for umeboshi (pickled plums) and kimchi, has created Fresh, a round or square container for nori (dried laver seaweed). Designed with the environment in mind, the container body is made of...

High-safety baking and steaming paper from Kimura Alumi Haku.(Numetto Sheet)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Numetto Sheet from Kimura Alumi Haku is used as an oven baking paper and in steamers. Made without toluene during the silicon coating process, it contains only 25% of the solvents of typical sheets for the same purpose. Moreover, the sheets...

Reed pulp trays from Wet.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Trays made from Chinese reed pulp and vended by Wet are finding their way onto the shelves of supermarkets, convenience stores and delis. The company treats the pulp cellulose to harden it and thus makes the trays more water-resistant....

Tomei Kagaku Kogyo and Izumi Food Machinery announce tamper-resistant cup seal.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Tomei Kagaku Kogyo and Izumi Food Machinery have jointly developed a new series of tamper-resistant polystyrene lids for plastic cups. The lid is easy to open. During attachment, it snaps over the flange of the cup and locks in place with a...

Energy Efficient Noodle Boiler.(Tachiurihori Seisakujo)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Tachiurihori Seisakujo has released "Lift Gata Jido Yude Menki YD07" a stainless steel electromagnetic guidance heating type automatic noodle boiling machine. The device maintains the water at a constant temperature of 98 decrees...

Chinese Dumpling Fryer.(from World Kitchen Tech)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... World Kitchen Tech has released "Denki Shiki Gyoza Yakiki Ron GS 2-STR" an electric meat dumpling frying device that enables up to 30 x 20g dumplings to be fried at the same time. The device features a special heat storage device that...

Nozzle Type Gas Injection Vacuum Wrapping Device.(Tosei Denki)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Tosei Denki has released "Takujo Nozzle Shiki Shinku / Gas Kojuten Hosoki Tospack NV-490G2" a table top size nozzle type vacuum packing device. The product to be wrapped is first placed in a bag and set on a table in the device. When the...

Non-Freezing Low Temperature Chilling Unit.(Toyoko Shokai)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Toyoko Shokai has released "Hyo-on Kaito Reizoko Sunfuresco" a chilling unit that maintains an internal temperature of minus 3 degrees Celsius yet prevents the food from freezing solid. The device uses a constant flow of static...

Hot Shochu Cups.(Sun Bio)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Tokyo based Sun Bio has released "Rokuyon" a range of stylish hour glass shaped thick porcelain shochu (Japanese vodka) cups designed to prevent the shochu mixed with hot water from becoming cold. The hot water is first poured into the...

Fruit Sugar.(Danisuko Japan)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Danisuko Japan has released "Fruit Sugar" a sweetener made from natural sugars present in fruit and honey. The resultant sweetner is 1.5 times sweeter than sugar and dissolves readily in both hot and cold liquids making it ideal for use...

Egg, Sugar & Milk Free Frozen Dessert.(Peace Beans)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... The Tokyo based confectionery manufacturer Peace Beans has released "Peace Beans" an egg, milk and sugar free ice cream style frozen dessert made from soy bean milk. The fibre rich dessert (800g per 100ml) is available in a variety of...

Chinese Style Noodle Broth.(Fuji Shokuhin Kogyo)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Fuji Shokuhin Kogyo has released "Chintan Chinpon" Chinese noodle broth made from a balanced mixture of pork and chicken extract accented with Okinawa salt and further flavoured with various vegetables and shellfish. Price: 2kg standing pouch...

Catering Chilled Meal Range from Yayoi Foods.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Tokyo based Yayoi Foods has added 3 new items to its Deli Grande chilled pasta meal range packaged in single serving portions. "DG Shrimp & Cheese Gratin" - A gratin dish in a rich milk sauce topped with 6 juicy peeled black tiger prawns....

Pork Catering Range from Yayoi Foods.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Tokyo based Yayoi Foods has released 4 new frozen meat items for the catering industry. "Puchi Pork Cuts" - Small bite sized succulent pork cutlets. "Tappuri Yasai No Hamburg" - Sweet seasoned small 30g size chicken mince burger...

2 New Japanese Style Sauces from Ajinomoto.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Ajinomoto has released 2 new Japanese style sauces for the catering industry. "Maroyaka Shiromiso Tare" - White miso (bean paste) blended with mayonnaise and lightly flavoured with mustard. "Akai Shoga Dare" - A coarse ground ginger...

Flavoured Cooking Oils from Ajinomoto Seiyu.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Ajinomoto Seiyu has released 2 new flavoured cooking oils under the "Savour Up" brand name. "Kari Kari Roast Garlic Oil" - A natural garlic oil made from roast garlic. The addition of a small amount is enough to produce a rich garlic...

Frying Oils from Ajinomoto.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2003... Ajinomoto has released 2 new frying oils. "Haitone 3939" - A frying oil specially blended to obtain a crisp finish making it ideal for use in breaded meat dishes such as pork cutlets, etc. "Haitone 8739" - A blended sesame seed oil...