Preventive Medicine with Hamburgers?! NISSIN to Begin Experiments to Demonstrate Possibilities of Food in Extension of Healthy Life Expectancy to Create a "New Food Culture" at "Toyota Woven City"
NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS CO., LTD. (President and Representative Director: Noritaka Ando; hereinafter NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS) will begin experiments to demonstrate the "extension of healthy life expectancy" with an "Optimized Nutri-Dense Meals*1" menu that utilizes the nutrition optimization technologies of NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS at "Toyota Woven City", jointly developed by Toyota Motor Corporation (President and Representative Director: Koji Sato; hereinafter Toyota) and Woven by Toyota, Inc. (CEO and Representative Director: Hajime Kumabe). Toyota Woven City officially launched on September 25, 2025 in Susono City, Shizuoka Prefecture.
To accelerate this research, NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS will launch the community "NISSIN FOOD INNOVATORS CLUB" for visitors to "Toyota Woven City" called "Weavers" and residents who wish to participate in the experiments. Here, the experiments will begin under the theme of "co-creation," where everyone thinks together about the "future of food" and the processes for realizing it.
The "NISSIN FOOD INNOVATORS CLUB" will use feedback from participants for areas like marketing and service design, and repeat short cycles of improvement and verification. Not only will this enable development of a plentiful menu of "Optimized Nutri-Dense Meals" including Ramen, pizza, and curry; but NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS is also aiming to establish services and a system that uses Toyota's mobility like "e-Palette" which customers will want to continuing using.
Further, NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS will provide a special menu of "Optimized Nutri-Dense Meals" only available at "Toyota Woven City" such as its original hamburger, and establish an environment where participants can continue to eat "Optimized Nutri-Dense Meals" while having fun by utilizing Toyota's mobility like "e-Palette". Additionally, NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS plan to verify objective indicators such as "medical examinations" alongside subjective indicators including participants' "physical and mental changes" and "perceived well-being", and demonstrate the effects of continuously eating a menu of "Optimized Nutri-Dense Meals" on these indicators.
Based on the knowledge gained from the experiments at "Toyota Woven City", NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS will carry out initiatives to improve well-being through food and pursue new possibilities in food such as the "extension of healthy life expectancy" and preventive medicine under the slogan "Japan as a nation on the cutting edge of preventive medicine."
Comment by Professor Hiroshi Itoh (Keio University - Center for Preventive Medicine - Project Professor / Keio University - Professor Emeritus / Japan Optimized Nutri-Dense Meals Association –President)
"Toyota Woven City" aims to establish an environment where people can enjoy a variety of "Optimized Nutri-Dense Meals" anytime, anywhere, and in various eating scenarios while being delicious and nutritionally balanced at the same time thanks to the technology of NISSIN FOOD PRODUCTS, and I can say that it is a place where one can experience firsthand the "evolution of food technology that contributes to well-being through food." Based on the knowledge gained in the demonstration experiments which aims to realize well-being through food after observing the effects of continuously eating delicious and enjoyable "Optimized Nutri-Dense Meals", I expect "Optimized Nutri-Dense Meals" to spread worldwide and become a de facto standard in the food market for nutritional balance in the future.
*2 Journal of Functional Foods 2022, 98, 105279. [URL] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2022.105279
*3 Nutrients 2024, 16 (18), 3202. [URL] https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16183202
*4 Announced at the 71st Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Food Science and Technology (Nagoya, August 2024)