-Kikkoman and GM Soybeans

– In a recent move, however, the leading soy sauce manufacturer Kikkoman
Corp. has begun using only non-GM soybeans in its products (which command
27 percent of the domestic market). “We have always used soybeans whose
safety was assured,” said spokesman Masahiko Shinoharaha. “We wanted our
customers to enjoy our soy sauce without any worries.” (The Japan Times
2003 June 22)

—
Kikkoman K.K. Japan
soudan@mail.kikkoman.co.jp

Kikkoman Trading Europe GmbH
info@kte.de
Important for your declaration: Our products are all GMO-free
http://www.kikkoman-europe.com/e/10/10-02/index.html

Kikkoman Australia
http://www.kikkoman.com.au/
Kikkoman Soy Sauce made from soybeans that have not been genetic modified
is available in Australia.

Our products in the United States and Canada are made from locally produced
soybeans, and distributors do not separate genetically modified soybeans
from other soybeans. So our products there do not claim to be GMO-free or
gentically modified.

—
For your information:
Sincerely,
Akiko
—

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20030622a1.htm
The Japan Times: June 22, 2003
In the realm of the superbean
By SETSUKO KAMIYA
Staff writer

It’s amazing how much tiny little beans can do.

Though they’re only the size of peas, the light-brown seeds of the soybean
plant are one of the food wonders of the world. They are, too,
indispensable to Japanese cuisine, and though they only rarely appear raw
and unadulterated in the nation’s kitchens, for most Japanese hardly a day
passes without them dining on some form of the bean.

Soybeans in their raw state, replete with nutritional goodness.

In fact, for all the millions who start their days with a typical Japanese
breakfast of rice and miso soup, there’s that bean already before their
bleary eyes in the steaming contents of their soup bowl — since miso is a
fermented concoction of boiled soybeans, rice and salt.

Depending on its region of origin, miso may be made using wheat instead of
rice, or simply using soybeans and salt. As a result, miso comes in many
colors, shades and tastes — but most Japanese (and many others, too) would
agree they are all delicious.

But miso soup isn’t just delicious; it’s amazingly versatile. Among the
ingredients most frequently added to miso are seaweed and Japanese leeks,
though tofu — itself made from coagulated soy milk — is often plopped in
there, too, either in its plain form or in deep-fried slices called
abura-age. Perhaps predictably enough, the oil the bean curd is fried in is
quite likely to be made from pressed soybeans, too.

With that, though, the soybean plant’s contribution to the typical Japanese
breakfast is not yet over, as many people like nothing more on their bowl
of sticky white rice than a big sticky dollop of natto — which is
fermented soybeans. Originated in Japan, natto is made by introducing a
bacterium called bacillus natto, which grows on rice straw, into boiled
soybeans before allowing them to ferment. In addition, many people like to
eat their natto mixed with some mustard and soy sauce — the seasoning made
by fermenting defatted soybeans, wheat and salt. Though it’s noted for its
peculiar smell, and taste, many Japanese would swear that “natto every day
keeps the doctor away.”

If, however, your favorite way to start the day is with a plate of bacon
and eggs and a slice of toast, you, too, are likely partaking of your
ration of soybeans. Maybe you used soy oil for the frying; and if it’s
margarine you spread on your toast, that will likely contain soy oil, too.
Even the hens and pigs providing the protein may well have been fed soybean
products.

And all that is just the soybean plant’s contribution to the day’s first
meal for many people in Japan.

The soybean plant (Glycine max) is an annual member of the pea family that
is native to Japan and China, and for all their popularity in this country,
tofu, soy sauce and miso all originated in China. For around 1,000 years
the Japanese have been adapting all these food products to suit their own
tastes, along the way developing hundreds of enchanting ways to cook and
serve them.

Despite having lived with soybeans for so long, the Japanese have recently
begun paying renewed attention to them as our understanding of their
numerous health benefits improves.

Often referred to as hatake no gyuniku (beef from the fields), soybeans
comprise around 35 percent protein of a type that helps to lower the
blood’s cholesterol level. They also contain lipid, a fatty organic
compound that is believed to raise the levels of beneficial cholesterol.
Additionally, these humble pea-plant seeds deliver beneficial sugars,
calcium, Vitamin E, fiber and — as has become known recently — soy
isoflavones.

This latter chemical, when accumulated in the human body, function like the
female sex hormone estrogen, which plays a role in the formation and
maintenance of bone. Hence it is considered particularly beneficial for
older women whose post-menopausal estrogen level fall, reducing their risk
of osteoporisis as well as easing their menopausal disorders.

In addition, it is now believed that soy isoflavones may play a role in
preventing cancers. A 2003 report by researchers at the National Cancer
Center in Tokyo, who surveyed the health and diet of some 20,000 women over
10 years from 1990, found that women who ate miso soup with every meal had
40 percent less chance of contracting breast cancer than those who didn’t
eat miso soup at all. While cautioning about the salt in miso, the report
said that these findings were a clear indicator of the health benefits of a
soybean diet.

New products on the market

But if tofu and miso are both very good for the body, natto is believed to
be even better. Because it is fermented, natto acquires additional
nutritional components, including six times the amount of vitamin B2 —
which encourages cell growth and renewal — found in unfermented beans.
What’s more, natto has an enzyme in it called nattokinase, which acts to
dissolve blood clots and so reduce the danger of heart attacks and strokes.

A small selection of the enormous range of processed goods and beverages
derived from soybeans that can be found in any Japanese supermarket.

Taken together, health claims such as these have elevated the humble soy to
superbean status. They have, too, fueled a drive to put new soy products on
the market.

Soy milk is a notable example. In the last year or two, supermarkets and
convenience stores have begun selling soy milk not just in its plain form
(as they have always done), but made into drinks with flavors ranging from
coffee to various fruits and sesame. And they are selling well. According
to the Japan Soy Milk Association, soy milk production in 2002 was 16.8
percent up on the year before. This, said association spokesman Atsushi
Kanda, continued a trend that has been evident over the past five years,
and is likely to continue.

“Soy milk was previously drunk mostly abroad, in countries where it was a
primary way of consuming soybeans,” Kanda said. “But with Japanese people
appreciating the health benefits of soy more these days, they are drinking
more soy milk now.”

While some Japanese used to not drink soy milk because of its peculiar
smell and taste, Kanda said that the new flavors manufacturers have come
out with have helped fuel the increase in consumption.

Tapping into this trend, coffee franchises like Starbucks and Tully’s
Coffee have, since this spring, put soy milk on their menus as a 50 yen
optional extra for customers who prefer it to dairy milk.

The ways of the bean: How raw soybeans become some of the best-known
soybean food products.

According to Starbucks Coffee Japan spokeswoman Miya Urasawa, the coffee
chain’s stores in the U.S. have had soy milk on the menu since 1995. A few
Japanese outlets began offering the soy option in 1999, after one store had
to turn down a request for soy milk from an American customer who was
allergic to dairy products. Urusawa reports that the company’s move to
introduce soy milk in all its stores was because “recently, we were being
increasingly asked for the soy milk option not just by foreign customers
but also by many Japanese women.”

Competitor Tully’s Coffee, however, offers soy milk only in its stores in
Japan. “Soy milk adds a rich flavor to the coffee, and it should be enjoyed
not just by health-conscious people but among wider range of customers,”
said Tully’s Coffee Japan spokeswoman Tomoko Takahashi. “In fact, we will
be introducing a new soy milk-based frozen drink from Monday,” she added.

In addition to such moves, restaurants that specialize in serving only tofu
dishes or sweets made from soybeans are now opening in fashionable spots
such as the Marunouchi Building and Roppongi Hills Complex in Tokyo.

Ironically, however, although Japan consumes so many soy products, its
self-sufficiency rate in terms of soybean production is very low. In fiscal
2001, in fact, it was only 5 percent — virtually all of which was used for
edible products. With soy products made of domestically produced soybeans
accounting for only 26 percent of what is eaten in Japan, most of the
enormous shortfall is made up by imports from the United States, followed
by Brazil, Canada, China and Argentina at prices far below anything
domestic growers can match. Of these imports, the majority is used to make
oil, though soy sauce, tofu, natto and other products sold here also rely
on foreign beans.

However, there are consumer concerns over the import of soybeans from
genetically modified plants. Whereas the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry
and Fisheries states that those beans grown in Japan are all non-GM, trade
statistics show that out of some 5.03 million tons of soybeans imported in
fiscal 2002, only 740,000 tons were known to be non-GM. The remaining 4.29
million tons of imported beans were used mostly to make soy oil — and what
proportion of that total was GM is not included in official data, according
to the ministry.

Since 2001, soy-product manufacturers have been required by the Japanese
Agricultural Standard to state whether they use GM soybeans or not. Japan’s
tofu and natto manufacturers say they are committed to using imported
non-GM beans. However, when soy oil and soy sauce are made using GM beans,
manufacturers are not obliged to state that fact, as the genetically
modified DNA is not detected in the end product.

In a recent move, however, the leading soy sauce manufacturer Kikkoman
Corp. has begun using only non-GM soybeans in its products (which command
27 percent of the domestic market). “We have always used soybeans whose
safety was assured,” said spokesman Masahiko Shinoharaha. “We wanted our
customers to enjoy our soy sauce without any worries.”

Although the Japanese diet has relied heavily on soybeans for so long,
there is nothing static in the evolving story of this little bean that’s
held by many in near-magical regard.