Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) of Japan made an announcement on March 29 on new labeling standards for categorizing Japanese rice flour according to its utility into three classifications; namely rice flour for cakes, rice flour for bread and rice flour for noodle.
MAFF is aiming at stimulating new demand for the rice flour by introducing the new labeling standards making it possible for consumers to select rice flour suitable for their use.
Under the new labeling system, classification of rice flour is based on amylose content.
High amylose content makes end-product quality hard, while low amylose content tends to make that soft.
Rice flour manufacturers will be able to provide consumers with detailed information on uses of rice flour, saying “Rice flour containing less than 15 percent amylose is suitable to make sponge cakes” or “Rice flour of 15 to 20 percent amylose content is best to cook Tempura and other dishes.”
MAFF also announced a new labelling standard of “non-gluten rice flour” containing no gluten causing a wheat allergy.
“Non-gluten” or “gluten-free” can be labeled on a package of rice flour containing gluten of less than 1 ppm, a minimum detectable amount. It will be also possible to put a “non-gluten” label on foods processed with such rice flour.
Sales of rice flour and its processed foods with new labeling will begin in 2017.