The establishment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015 increases awareness of the issue of food loss and waste around the world. Moreover, in Japan the Food Loss Reduction Promotion Act has been enforced since October 2019. Considering this background, this special issue aims to highlight how we should think and what we can do to reduce food loss and waste in the near future in Japan. Therefore, the current status of food loss and waste and prospects for their reduction are explained and discussed in domestic and foreign environments. In Japan, almost half of food loss and waste of food occurs at home. Therefore, this special issue will also deal with prospects related to food loss and waste from the viewpoint of consumers. This special issue covers the following topics related to the food industry: agricultural production, processing (with development of machinery and packaging, and effectiveness of food additives), logistics, retail and consumption. In addition, this issue is unique because of proposed measures in anticipation of the Post-COVID-19 era as well as reviewing the effect of COVID-19 on changing trends of food loss and waste in the world, including Japan. The editor hopes this special issue will be helpful to highlight points in current measures and to establish novel measures to avoid food loss and waste in the food industry.

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This paper argues that the essence of the food loss and waste (FLW) problem is supply and demand adjustment, and that the solution by "qualitative adjustment" rather than quantity adjustment or price adjustment will lead to innovation in the food supply chain (FSC) for the post-corona era. "Qualitative adjustment" means that the supply and demand adjustment is qualitatively performed with the shift in marketing channels, including processing/cooking, distribution systems, food and menu, hospitality, supply to welfare, etc. In France, FLW reduction is proposed within the EGalim law, which bans excessive bargains, raises farm incomes, and builds an environmentally friendly FSCs that include organic and vegetarian foods. In the UK, developing a marketing channel that distributes donated surplus food to foodbanks and grocery stores for needy society members at low prices or free is being promoted by FLW as one of the measures. However, the "quality" perceived by consumers is very subjectively, and there may be no change even in the post-corona era. However, given that digital solutions can meet diverse needs, the potential for social innovation is not low. If the significance of FLW reduction can be shared and indexed in such communication between consumers and suppliers, the significance of qualitative adjustment of food supply and demand can be more objective. FLW could be reduced as a result of qualitative adjustment. For this process to be successful, FSC innovation must be widely accepted by society as fostered by more universal and clearly communicated FLW reductions.

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According to an estimate by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in 2017, food loss (food that can be eaten but is discarded) amounted to 6.12 million tons. This food loss was 3.28 million tons from food related businesses and 2.84 million tons from general households. In general, foods with high water content often have a short shelf life because of the ease of bacteria growth and the food spoils quickly, resulting in a large quantity of food loss. The shelf life of these products can be extended by improving sanitation on the production line (pretreatment, filling machine, etc.) and asepticizing the production line. We, Shikoku Kakoki Co., Ltd., have ESL filling machines (filling machines for extended shelf life) and aseptic filling machines with various types of containers such as gable top paper containers, brick-shaped paper containers, cups, PET bottles, paper cylindrical containers, glass bottles, etc. We develop, manufacture and sell these filling machines. This paper introduces ESL filling machines and aseptic filling machines. In addition, the food manufacturing department uses a brick-type paper container aseptic filling machine in the manufacturing of tofu that can then be stored for a long shelf life with almost no food loss.

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In recent years, measures have been taken to address the issues of food loss and waste in Japan and abroad. Delivery services provided by restaurants, take-out meals selected by consumers, and extension of the sales period at supermarkets and other shops are effective measures to reduce food loss and waste. However, it is necessary to take exact measures against microorganisms monitoring and extending the time from the production of food until its consumption. Using food additives could be effective as one of the measures. When using food additives, only adding them is insufficient and it is important to understand the characteristics of the food additive to be used such as the variations of food pH, adsorption of food ingredients and changes in efficacy due to interactions with other additives. In addition, I believe it is also important to incorporate methods of predictive microbiology to determine risks in advance such as the level of risk of food spoilage and the extent to which food will be spoiled when temperatures are high.

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In this paper, we estimated the amount of food loss and waste in Japan. After that, we proposed sharing of logistics as a hypothesis to reduce food waste on farms, conduct proof experiments, and verify the hypothesis. As a result, important points for streamlining the distribution of agricultural products to reduce food loss are clarified. It is important to perform matching that improves the loading rate. In this regard, it is most important to consider a combination of communalization in terms of shipment quantity. In particular, if it is possible for trucks returning to the farm to transport products it will lead to an improvement in the loading rate for round trips. To achieve this, it is necessary to acquire logistical information on commercial distribution of nonagricultural products. Thus, there is a need for coordination and information sharing between logistics companies. It is important not only to strengthen the sharing of information between the farm and the customer, but also to improve its transmission speed and accuracy. Future issues include the digitization and sharing of transaction data and shipping schedule data related to logistics.

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In the 2020 COVID-19 disaster, there was a trend to reduce household food loss and waste (FLW) in the UK, France, Italy, Australia, Japan and other countries. This can be attributed to restrictions on the frequency of shopping and the disappearance of food from product shelves due to panic buying and other factors, which led people to try to use up the food they now have in their homes instead of throwing it away. In Japan, 6.12 million tons of food is wasted annually. This is about the same as the amount of food eaten by the people of Tokyo in a year, which is 1.6 times the amount of food aid in the world. Despite this, some in the business community argue that reducing food loss and waste (FLW) will cause the economy to shrink. They have banned missing items to avoid losing sales. But there are many examples of how reducing food loss and maintaining sales can go hand in hand. Among the "3Rs", which are the principles of environmental consideration, the top priority is "Reduce". Understanding the difference between "best-before" and "used-by" dates, choosing foods that are close to their expiration dates in stores, and being creative in storing and cooking vegetables, as well as measuring and visualizing losses. I will discuss this "Reduce" example.

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The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an important microorganism in basic science as a model for higher eukaryotes. Yeast is also a useful microbe in the fermentation industry for making breads, alcoholic beverages and bioethanol. There are two major purposes for breeding of industrial yeast: improvement of fermentation ability with enhanced tolerance to environmental stresses during fermentation processes and diversity of product taste and flavour from modified metabolic pathways. In yeast, amino acid metabolism varies under different growth environments by regulating anabolic and catabolic processes and the metabolic styles form a complicated but robust network. There is also crosstalk with various metabolic pathways, products and signal molecules. The elucidation of metabolic regulatory mechanisms and physiological roles for amino acids is important fundamental research for understanding life phenomena. Yeast (S. cerevisiae) has received attention as a suitable host for food and pharmaceutical-grade products due to its generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status. Yeast cells contain high concentrations of protein, RNA, lipids, amino acids and vitamins that can be utilized as nutrient-rich dietary supplements for animals and humans. Thus, the development of novel yeast strains that overproduce 'functional' amino acids, such as proline, arginine, leucine, valine and ornithine, would greatly contribute to food-related industries. This review mainly describes our research in constructing yeast strains with high functionality as part of a new breeding technology called "functional amino acid engineering", focusing on the metabolic regulatory mechanisms and physiological roles of amino acids.

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Application of genome editing technology to new food development and breeding of crops or livestock has become popular in recent years. Genomic editing techniques are easy and cost effective by use of the CRISPR/Cas9 system, making it possible to delete, mutate or add genes or nucleic acid fragments to a specific part of the genome in organisms. High oleic-soybean was developed and cultivated in the USA in 2018, and its oil became commercially available in 2019. This is the first commercial sale of genome edited food in the world. Research work on the development of genome edited foods is being carried out on high γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) tomato, poison reduced potato, sea bream with increased skeletal muscle mass, thick meat sea bream, Pacific bluefin tuna with slow swimming behavior, etc. I will introduce several cases of development of genome edited foods in Japan and other countries. Genome editing is a useful technique for improving not only crop cultivation and livestock growing, but also for the development of new food material in contrast to conventional breeding because of its shortened breeding period. With transparent and ethical discussion and confirmation of food safety, genome editing is a desirable method for development of new foods.

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One of the major international projects of Slow Food, this article discusses the "Ark of Taste", activities to protect traditional food from extinction, focusing on the condiment category. Even though condiments are already listed in the manifesto as a possible "passenger" of the Ark, this has not aroused much interest for a number of years. Recently, thanks to the development of international activities focused on biodiversity, including the international "Ark of Taste", grassroots "Praesidia", the Terra Madre, and "10,000 Gardens in Africa"; a lot of precious condiments have arrived from Italy and enriched the network of quality food and food producers. From the recognized Italian condiments, this article illustrates particularly a traditional Italian condiment called "Colatura", a fish sauce of Cetara from the Amalfi coast near Naples, from various points of view in gastronomic sciences. After the recognition of Slow Food, colatura is in the trial phase of DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta) for further steps of preservation and commercialization. This article also covers some of the contents from official DOP documents. If Colatura becomes DOP, it will be the first example of a fishbased product as DOP. The working team is trying to standardize the system of sensorial analysis to identify the authenticity of the product.

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Japanese dairying was introduced as one of the modernization policies based on the Meiji Restoration 150 years ago and thus followed a development process different from traditional dairying in Europe and the United States. The difference is that ranch operation (i.e., raw milk supply) and milk processing and sales were separated from the beginning in Japan. Also, the fact that Japanese chose to consume sweetened condensed milk developed in the United States, over butter and cheese, spurred development of these two distinct and separated dairy businesses, that is, raw milk suppliers and its processors, which is characteristic of the Japanese dairy industry. It was after World War II that Japan's milk diet changed dramatically. The key to that change was the policies to promote the fusion of several Western cultures into Japanese society, which were implemented in the 1950s and 1960s under the influence of the U.S. Occupation Forces. Milk and cheese were introduced and became part of school lunches, and a campaign to popularize Western-style recipes to improve home nutrition was developed. On the production side, policies to promote new dairy farming, policies to promote agricultural modernization, and policies to stabilize raw milk prices to protect dairy farmers were also implemented. As a result of the implementation of such promotion policies and various activities, the dietary tastes of the people changed, and modern Japanese milk products are generally integrated into daily dietary habits. The event that contributed most to this change was the introduction of milk meals into the school lunch program.

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