Nutrition/Health Session
Takayuki Kosugi, Value Creation Department, SAPPORO BREWERIES LTD, 10 Okatohme, Yaizu, Shizuoka, 425-0013 Japan
Co-author(s): Tsutomu Yamaki, Yoichi Kozaki, Kiyoshi Takoi, Toru Shioi, and Junji Watari, Value Creation Department, Sapporo Breweries Ltd., Yaizu, Japan
ABSTRACT: In Japan, the 0.00% alcohol beer market has grown in the last two years, in contrast to the shrinking alcoholic beer market. This is presumably due to the health habits and negative views toward alcohol among average Japanese consumers. The market is expected to show further growth, so major Japanese breweries are making efforts to develop technologies and products in this category. Almost all of these products have focused on drinkability, low bitterness, and light body to appeal to light consumers of beer. As a result of our market research, however, we found that approximately 30% of consumers of non-alcoholic beer are regular consumers, and they were not satisfied with the flavor and quality of these products. Therefore, we have developed our product with the aim of achieving the bitterness and body of regular beers. We investigated the correlations among bitterness, flavor, and stability in non-alcoholic beer and found that gushing volume is related to the volume of bitter ingredients. In this presentation, we describe the knowledge obtained from the development of our 0.00% alcohol beer product and our additional efforts to achieve more authentic beer flavor and enhanced quality.
Takayuki Kosugi graduated from Kobe University with a master’s degree in biological and environmental science in 2001. He began working for the quality control and research section in Kizakura Breweries Ltd. He then joined the Product & Technology Development Center of Sapporo Breweries Ltd. in 2005. He has been engaged in new product development.
