Can Adult Food Education Become a Corporate Strategy? — Designing and Implementing Food Policies to Obtain "Excellent Food Education Practice Corporation" Certification

On April 1, 2026 (Wednesday), the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries certified "Excellent Food Education Practice Corporation 2026."

In recent years, with the promotion of health management, employee health support has been positioned as an important management issue.

Amidst this, "food" is once again drawing attention.

While initiatives related to exercise and sleep are progressing, an approach to "eating habits" directly linked to daily performance, productivity, presenteeism, and lifestyle disease risks has not yet been sufficiently implemented by many companies.

This article discusses whether "adult food education can become a corporate strategy," explaining the ideas behind policy design and specific implementation methods for obtaining "Excellent Food Education Practice Corporation" certification.

## Why is "Food Education" now required by companies?

Many modern business professionals face challenges such as:
- Skipping breakfast
- Life centered around eating out and ready-made meals
- Insufficient vegetable intake
- Irregular meal times
- Drinking habits

These are not merely lifestyle problems, but lead to:
- Decreased productivity
- Increased presenteeism (productivity loss due to health issues)
- Higher risk of lifestyle diseases

Improving eating habits is a crucial management issue directly linked to corporate performance, not just individual health.

## Initiatives sought by Excellent Food Education Practice Corporations

The "Excellent Food Education Practice Corporation Recognition System" promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries evaluates:
- Continuous efforts
- Employee behavioral change
- Improvement based on data

In other words,
it's not about one-off measures like "holding seminars" or "hosting events,"

but rather, **"whether actual eating habits have changed"** is important.

## Common challenges in food education policies

On-site, many cases are observed where:
- Seminars are held and then nothing
- One-off events are not sustained
- Only food provision happens
- There is no effect measurement

What these have in common is:

**"There are policies, but no design."**

Food education is not about "doing something" but about "designing something."

## Designing food education as a corporate strategy

To make food education function as a management policy, the following four steps are necessary:

① Visualization (understanding the current situation)
② Policy design according to challenges
③ Implementation design to promote behavioral change
④ Effect verification and improvement

Only by designing this series of processes can results be achieved.

## Smile meal's food education support: Consistent support from design to implementation

Smile meal offers food education programs tailored to each company's challenges, provided by a specialized team centered around registered dietitians.

- Food condition check (eating habit analysis)