Osaka Office Building Makes Craft Beer to Cut Food Waste

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:00 JST, May 2, 2023

OSAKA — Leftover food is not going entirely to waste at an office complex in Osaka.

Craft beer made using uneaten rice with mixed grains from a cafeteria for tenants at the Osaka Umeda Twin Towers South has been sold to employees working in the office since mid-March.

Hankyu Hanshin Properties Corp., which manages the building in front of JR Osaka Station, launched this initiative as part of its efforts to reduce food waste with entities such as Crust Japan, a startup that strives to do the same.

Called Umeda Kodachi, the craft beer is produced at a brewery in Osaka using a method where some malt is replaced with the mixed-grain rice. One 330-milliliter bottle of the beer is said to reduce food waste by the equivalent of two rice balls.

The bottled beer is sold for ¥1,100 at a bar only for people who work in the building.