G/TBT/N/JPN/106

The draft of the revised Quality Labelling Standard of Soy Sauce (Shoyu)

(Unofficial Translation)

(Definition)

In this standard, the terms in the left column of the following table are defined as set forth in the right column of the same table.

Term / Definition
Soy sauce
(shoyu) / Following products (including those into which sugar, alcohol, etc. are subsidiary added):
1. Clear liquid seasoning made by fermenting and maturing moromi which is prepared by adding salt water or kiage (raw soy sauce) to shoyu koji or shoyu koji with steamed rice or shoyu koji with steamed rice saccarified by koji mold (including those made with auxiliary use of enzyme (except proteolytic enzyme) such as cellulose in the manufacturing process; hereinafter referred to as “Soy sauce made by regular fermenting method”); and shoyu koji is cultured mold on prepared soy beans or prepared soy-beans with grains such as wheat, rice or wheat gluten by steaming and/or other method.
2. Clear liquid seasoning made by fermenting and maturing moromi or kiage added with the vegetable protein hydrolyzed by acid (vegetable protein of soy beans, etc. hydrolyzed by acid; hereinafter the same), the vegetable protein hydrolyzed by enzyme (vegetable protein of soy-beans, etc. hydrolyzed by proteolytic enzyme; hereinafter the same) or the vegetable protein hydrolyzed by fermenting ( wheat gluten hydrolyzed by fermenting; hereinafter the same) , (hereinafter referred to as “Soy sauce made by mixed and semi-fermenting method”)
3. Those defined in 1 or 2 added the vegetable protein hydrolyzed by acid or the vegetable protein hydrolyzed by fermenting (hereinafter referred to as “Soy sauce made by mixed method”)
Koikuchi shoyu
(Common soy sauce) / Soy sauce, those using soy-beans with wheat of almost the same quantity as soy-beans and/or grains such as rice, as the raw material of shoyu koji.
Usukuchi shoyu
(Light color soy sauce) / Soy sauce, those using soy-beans with wheat of almost the same quantity as soy-beans and/or grains such as rice or wheat gluten, as the raw material of shoyu koji, and using the moromi prepared with or without steamed rice ore the rice saccharified by koji mold and being controlled in the manufacturing process so that the color is not deepened.
Tamari shoyu / Soy sauce, those using soy-beans or soy-beans with a small quantity of wheat and/or grains such as rice, as the raw material of shoyu koji.
Saishikomi shoyu
(Refermented soy sauce) / Soy sauce, those using soy-beans with wheat of almost the same quantity as soy-beans and/or grains such as rice, as the raw material of shoyu koji, and using the moromi prepared with kiage instead of salt water.
Shiro shoyu
(Extra light color soy sauce) / Soy sauce, those which using small quantity of soy-beans with wheat and/or wheat gluten as the raw material of shoyu koji and being extremely controlled in the manufacturing process so that the color is not deepened.
Kiage
(Raw soy sauce) / Raw liquid pressed from the fermented and matured moromi.

(Method of labelling)

(1) Name

a. In Koikuchi, Usukuchi, Tamari, Saishikomi and Shiro shoyu, name shall be mentioned with kind of shoyu, such as “Koikuchi shoyu”, “Usukuchi shoyu”, “Shiro shoyu”, etc, followed by name of production method with brackets, such as “Regular fermented”, “Mixed and fermented” or ”Mixed”.

(e.g. “Koikuchi shoyu (Regular fermented)”, “Usukuchi shoyu(Mixed and semi-fermented)” )

b. In shoyu other than a), name shall be mentioned with “shoyu” followed by name of production method with brackets.

(2)Name of ingredients

Names of ingredients used shall be mentioned by the following items of a. and b. in the order of their content in the product pursuant to the provisions in a. and b. respectively.

a. The ingredients other than food additives shall be indicated in the order of their content in the product pursuant to the following provisions:

(a) Their most common name such as “Soy-beans”, “Defatted processed soy-beans”, “Barley”, “Naked Barley”, “Rice”, “Vegetable protein hydrolyzed by enzyme”, “Vegetable protein hydrolyzed by fermenting”, “Salt”, “Sugar”, “Glucose”, “Alcohol”, “Caramel”, “Extract of licorice”, etc. shall be indicated in the order of their content in the product.

(b)In the case where tow kinds or more of sugar are used, regardless of the provision of (a), the names of sugar shall be mentioned such as “Sugar, Glucose” in parentheses next to the letters of “Sugar” or “Saccharide” in the order of their content in the product: Provided that in the case where sugar and sugar-mixed glucose and fructose syrup are used together, “Sugar ; Glucose and fructose syrup” shall be mentioned, in the case where sugar and sugar-mixed high-fructose syrup are used together, ”Sugar ; High-fructose syrup” shall be mentioned, and in the case where sugar and sugar-mixed fructose and glucose syrup are used together, “Sugar ; Fructose and glucose syrup” shall be mentioned.

(c)In the case of the soy sauce, the labelling of net contents of which is 200 ml or less, “Glucose and fructose syrup”, “Fructose and glucose syrup” and “High-fructose syrup” may be mentioned as “Syrup”, and as for “Sugar ; Glucose and fructose syrup”, “Sugar ; Fructose and glucose syrup” and “Sugar ; High-fructose syrup” may be mentioned as “Sugar ; syrup”.

b. The food additives shall be mentioned in a descending order of the weight occupying in the product in accordance with the provisions of Article 5-1-1-e, 5-1-2, 5-11 and 5-12 of the Enforcement Regulations of the food Sanitation Law (Ordinance No.23 issued from the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 1948).

(Matters prohibited from labelling)

The matters set forth hereunder shall not be labeled.

(1) The term of “Special grade”, “Superior grade” and “Normal” (Excluding the products graded as JAS for soy sauce)

(2) The term to indicate quality of product such as “Special selected”, “Selected”, “Special”, “Superior”, etc. (Excluding the products graded as JAS for soy sauce and complied with the provision in Table 1)

(3) The term of “Rich” (Excluding the products graded as JAS for soy sauce and complied with the provision in Table 1)

(4)The term of “Fermented” for those made by mixing method (Excluding the case that it is used in the name of ingredients)

(5)The term of “Natural” (excluding the term of “Natural fermenting” for those which are made by the regular fermenting method and the fermentation of which are not promoted by enzyme such as cellulose, and which is not used the food additives listed in Attached Table 2 of Regulation)

(6)The term of “Pure”, “Genuine”, “Raw”, “Kibiki” or other terms which means purity (excluding, with respect to those which is made by the regular fermenting method, the fermentation of which is made by the regular fermenting method, the fermentation of which is not promoted by the enzyme such as cellulose and which is not used the additives listed in Attached Table 2 of Regulation, the terms of “Pure” and “Genuine” for those which are not used any additives other than the salt, the glucose or the alcohol which is added to the extent needed to uniform the quality, the terms of “Raw” for those which are not added with any additives other than salt and for those which are not heated but sterilized comparably to heating and the terms of “Kibiki” for those which are Tamari shoyu made by regular fermented method and graded as “Special” in accordance with JAS for soy sauce.

(7) “Less salt”, “salt reduced” or the term meaning that the content of salt is less (excluding the case which product is complied with Table2)

(8) The term which may leads to misconception that the product has won the prize at a competitive show, etc. (excluding the case of labelling for those which is made by the identical method of the product which has won the prize at competitive show, etc. provided that the year of winning the prize is mentioned together) and the term which may lead to misconception that the product is recommended by the government and municipal offices.

Table 1

Category / Terms
1. Koikuchi shoyu and Tamari shoyu, which is graded as “Special” according to JAS for soy sauce, and whose percentage of nitrogen is more than 1.2 times of the value of standard for “Special”
2. Usukuchi shoyu and Shiro shoyu, which is graded as “Special” according to JAS for soy sauce, which is not added with sugar, and whose percentage of soluble solids without salt is more than 1.2 times of the value of standard for “Special”
3. Saishikomi shoyu made by fermented method, which is graded as “Special” according to JAS for soy sauce, and whose percentage of nitrogen is more than 1.2 times of the value of standard for “Special” / Chou Tokusen (Special selected)
1. Koikuchi shoyu and Tamari shoyu, which is graded as “Special” according to JAS for soy sauce, and whose percentage of nitrogen is more than 1.1 times of the value of standard for “Special”
2. Usukuchi shoyu and Shiro shoyu, which is graded as “Special” according to JAS for soy sauce, which is not added with sugar, and whose percentage of soluble solids without salt is more than 1.1 times of the value of standard for “Special”
3. Saishikomi shoyu made by fermented method, which is graded as “Special” according to JAS for soy sauce, and whose percentage of nitrogen is more than 1.1 times of the value of standard for “Special” / Tokusen (Special)
Those which are graded as “Special” according to JAS for soy sauce. / Tokusei, Tokugin, or similar terms
(Special)
Those which are graded as “Superior”according to JAS for soy sauce. / Jousen, Ginjou, Yusen, Yuryou or similar terms (Superior)
Koikuchi shoyu, Tamari shoyu and Saishikomi shoyu whose percentage of nitrogen is more than 1.2 times of the value of standard for “Special”. / Noukou (Rich)

Table 2

Category / Term
Shoyu which percentage of salt is less than 80% of normal shoyu, and labeled according to article 31-1 of Health Promoting Law / Usu sio, Asa sio, Ama sio, Tei en (Less Salt)
Shoyu according to article 26-1 of Health Promoting Law. / Gen en (Salt Reduced)