In Japan and other advanced countries, regulations of nutrition labeling have been already introduced according to Codex Guidlines. As, recently, international interests on functions of food components are increased, many countries have considered to introduce the health claim labeling.
Japanese government has established the health claims on foods from the standpoints of the international harmonization and increased informations for consumers. This labeling is named “Food with Health Claims”, composed of “Food Specified for Health Use” and “Food with Nutrient Function Claims” . These foods are also permitted as tablet, capsule and so on as forms like drug. The former is granted for individual food by judging committee in the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour and the latter is submitted to the rule of labeling shown by the Ministry.
The health claims must be based on sound and accurate scientic criteria. On the other hand, consumers are desired to consider the importance of usual diets and carefully use these foods.

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The amounts of inorganic components in cultivated spinach for every term were investigated. Every sample was separated into 3 parts (leaf, stem and root). The spinaches were cultivated for a period of 2 months on a farm with the same soil conditions.After 2 months from sowing, 10 samples of the spinaches were harvested during each November, January and March term. The moisture, ash and inorganic component contents (K, Mg, Ca, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu) in each sample were analyzed. The results are as follows.
(1) The amounts of the components (K+Ca+Mg) in the spinaches (100g) harvested in November and March were in the order of leaf>root>stem. The order of the January term was leaf>stem>root.
(2) The amount of K was 82.4-97.0% of the components (K+Ca+Mg). The component amounts (K+Ca+Mg) was dependent on that of K.
(3) The amount of Mg shows little difference in any cultivation term or any part.
(4) The amount of components (Fe+Mn+Zn+Cu) in the roots was the highest for any cultivation term.
(5) The amount of Fe in the roots was the highest for any cultivation term.
(6) It was found that the roots of the spinach were valuable as source of the inorganic components.

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Questionaire studies were performed for non-institutinalized elderly (males: 87; females: 219) of 70years or older (average: 79.2years old) in order to investigate how the subjective QOL (Quality of Life) is affected by their dietary life from the view point of living arrangements and ADL (Activity of Daily Living). Five factors were extracted by factor analyses of the questionaire;i. e., satisfaction of dietary life. ADL, subjective QOL, human relations and worth living, and peace of mind. The subjects were divided into 4 groups based on the score of ADL and living arrangement (with or without families), i. e., living with families with a high ADL, living alone with high ADL, living with families with a low ADL, and living alone with a low ADL. As the number of living alone with a low ADL (n=8) was very low, the analyses were performed on the other 3 groups, living with families with a high ADL (n=135), living alone with a high ADL (n=80), and living with families with a low ADL (n=77). The scores of the subjective QOL was not different among the 3 groups, and the subjective QOL significantly (p<0.01) correlated with thescores of satisfaction of dietary life, human relation and worth living, and peace of mind. However, the role of dietary life was suggested to be different. The worth of diet life for the elderly with a high ADL was mostly focused on the communication with families and/or friends at meal time, but that for the elderly with a low ADL was focused on the preference of the meal itself. In addition, mastication ability was significantly correlated to the food intake and the satisfaction of dietary life. The oral health care was also indicated to be very important in order to increase the individual QOL of the elderly.

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The Structure of the school lunch menu with respect to choices and cooking method was analyzed for a 3-fiscal-year (1989, 1994, and 1998) peliod at an elementary school in the Y city of Yamagata prefecture.
1) There was very little difference in the menu number (the food service execution days) over the 3 year peliod. The Japanese menu was almost 50% of the menu for each fiscal year. The nutrition intake has approximately satisfied the standard quantity.
2) One typical menu averaged 22-25 pieces of food and a dish averaged 4.4-4.9 types. The foods ueed the most were seasonings and vegetables. The typical foods were‘milled rice’‘bread’and‘pork’and these foods were considered staple foods or a main vegetable.
3) With respect to the type of cooking methods, it incresaed in comparison from the menu in fiscal 1988 to the menus in fiscal 1994 and 1998.

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Many investigators have shown that young women desire to reduce their body weight (BMI) for the purpose of “looking more attractive” . Almost all of them are interested in the strategies to reduce their weight. This investigation was performed to examine the body image and experiences of socalled “diet behaviors” (strategies to reduce weight) in middle aged women by the questionnaire method. The results were compared to those of female college students (middle aged women's daughters). The study involved 502 female students (18.7±0.8y.o.) and 473 middle aged women (47.2±34 y. o.). The subjects of each group were divided into three subgroups by the new obesity criteria of the Japan Society for the Study of Obesity. Except for both obese subgroups, a number of subjects had an inadequate body image, expecially in the student group.Compared to the present BMI (students group;20.8±2.1, middle aged women group;22.3±2.4), the ideal BMI of almost all the subjects is low except for the under weight subgroup of the middle aged women. Two-thirds of the students and one-third of the middle aged women have tried to reduce their weight by methods such as exercise, reducing meals, using special foods and so on. At present, almost half of the subjects desire to lose weight by some strategies, the socalled “diet behaviors” .Although the students desire it “to look more attractive”, the middle aged women desire it “to be healthier” .

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The nutrients contained in the goat meat Japanese' Saanen (Japan) and Black goat (Korea) were analyzed.
The amount of crude proteins, crude lipids in the goat meat of Black goat were high compared to goat meat of Saanen.
Male rats were fed a cholesterol diet with 18% defatted goat meat and hydrolyzed goat meat as protein. Protein source were defatted goat meat and 2.0% papain hydrolyzed goat meat.
After 4 weeks of feeding, serum total cholesterol concentration was significantly lower in rats fed defatted goat meat than in those fed lactcasein (control diet), and serum cholesterol decreased in rats fed hydrolyzed goat meat more than rats fed defatted goat meat.
There was a higher amount of IgA in serum of the goat meat group compared to control group. There were no significant difference in the fecal cholesterol extraction among the group.
The fecal bile acids excreation was significantly higher in the goat meat of Saanen and defatted goat meat of Black goat than control group.

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A questionnaire survey was conducted to compare the health consideration and defecation tendencies from 1987 to 1997 of college women living in Sapporo (279 and 146, respectively), Sendai (247 and 183, respectively), and Osaka (209 and 1214, respectively).
1) When questioned about their food habits, the respondents of the three groups, who considered their food intake not to be sufficient to maintain their health, increasedfrom 19% in 1987 to 24% in 1997, with the highest increase in Sendai from 18% in 1987 to 26% in 1997 (difference between the past decade: p+0.05 in total for the three regions and in Sendai).
2) Knowledge about food intake requirements decreased overall from 62% in 1987 to 54% in 1997 (p<0.001 in total of three regions). Positive responses increased from 68% to 86% in Sendai, but decreased from 71% to 51% in Osaka and from 48% to 41% in Sapporo during their decade (p<0.001 in both Sendai and Osaka, and p<0.01 in Sapporo).
3) In 1987 and 1997, 91% and 94% of the students, respectively, considered that constipation could affect their health (p<0.05 in total for the three regions). In Osaka, the positive response increased from 87% to 94% during the decade (p<0.001 in Osaka).
4) The percentage of those with regular bowel movements every day decreased from 27% in 1987 to 22% in 1997, and bowel movements of less than three times a week were reported by 21% and 23% in 1987 and 1997, respectively (p<0.05 in total for the three regions). The respondents from Sendai and Osaka reported an increase in irregular defecation from 18% to 22% and from 12% to 18% during the decade, respectively (p<0.05 in both Sendai and Osaka).
5) Those who had defecation between when they awoke to after breakfast decreased from 46% to 39% from 1987 to 1997, while defecation at irregular times increased from 35% to 56% during the decade, with their increase being the highest in Sapporo (p<0.01 in total for the three regions and in Sapporo, and p<0.05 in both Sendai and Osaka).

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Sensory evaluation of 8 raw sugars (Kagoshima: 6, Okinawa: 1, trial product) from the Nansei Islands and the influence of their manufacturing factors on their evaluation were investigated. The obtained results were as follows.
1. The raw sugar with a high evaluation taste showed a tendency of containing a high sucrose content and low mineral content.
2. When up to 0.1% of lime was added to the extract juice the L* value decreased, however, more than 0.1% produced a higher L*value and the sensory evaluation decreased.
3. The raw sugar with 0.05% lime added has a better taste and a better color.
4. By adding lime, the amount of invert sugar decreases, and the content of sucrose increases when the delicious raw sugar is made.

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Cultural area study was investigated by package information, hearing with interview, composition analysis and texture measurment on momen tofu in Okinawa and Kanto regions.
1) On the ingredients for tofu making, nigari (MgC12) was generally a tendency to take the place of sumasiko (CaSO4) as coagulant of soymilk, and domestic soybean to take the place of transgenic soybean, especially in Kanto region. The and-foaming agent was not added to all in Okinawa, and about in half of tofu in Kanto region.
2) In Okinawa, about 70% of momen tofu was produced by the nama-sibori method, and all of tofu in Kanto region by the nitori method.
3) The hearing on dishes of tofu were caried out in Okinawa, and summerized on all dishes of tofu based on two factors of both the pre-treating methods of tofu and cooking methods.
4) In analytical results, Mg contents of tofu were higher than Ca contents, in both Okinawa and Kanto regions. This relationship between Mg and Ca contents on tofu differ from analysing results of Mg and Ca contents for 3-5 years ago.
5) The hardness of tofu were different in between Okinawa and Kanto regions, and the hardness of tofu in Okinawa showed 1.7times by comparison with that of Kanto region.

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