Cream rising: Nestle Japan promotes wider use of beverage creamer for cooking purposes

Nestle Brite was first launched in 1969, as the first vegetable-based creaming powder in Japan. It was marketed to enhance creaminess when added to beverages such as coffee and tea, while not imparting any additional flavour

It also makes a liquid format sold under the Nestle Krematop brand.

Since Brite is soluble in warm or hot beverages, the firm decided it would be suitable for foods such as soup, and has worked with Japanese video creator Haruan to promote its use it more applications.

Naoko Ogawa, assistant manager of media relations at Nestle Japan, told FoodNavigator-Asia​: “While Brite is traditionally known to be the best partner for coffee, we would like to broaden the usage to cooking, so consumers can discover a new taste of enhanced creaminess​.”

Dishes that would be suitable for Brite include cup noodles, curry, soups and stews.

For such savoury dishes, people typically add milk or cream which must be kept refrigerated for a couple of days, while Brite has a shelf life of two years at room temperature.

“Instead of adding cold milk, Brite can offer creaminess without changing the temperature or dilution of the food. Brite also has the advantage of retaining the original flavour of the beverage or food​,” Ogawa said.

Brite is made with vegetable oils and casein protein, that is spray dried into a powder.

It is available in non-flavoured, flavoured range and also a lower fat option (Nestle Brite Slim) which contains 50% less fat.

Brite is sold at supermarkets, drug stores, and online stores across Japan. In other countries, Nit is sold under  theCoffee Mate brand.

Vending machine to reduce food waste​

In another new initiative, Nestle Japan has collaborated with collaboration with Minatoku to sell its products through an unmanned vending machine in a bid to reduce food loss.

The machines, called food loss reduction boxes, has been developed to sell products that are still edible but may have passed the delivery deadline, and would have been thrown away.

Products that will be sold in the boxes include Nescafe bottled coffee, Nescafe instant coffee, Nestle matcha latte (stick-type), as well as Kit Kat.

These will also be sold at a lower price than retail.

“Nestle Japan aims to build a new channel for selling products that are still edible but face difficulties in ordinary distribution routes to consumers as an initiative that reduces food loss​,” said Atsuhi Murata, assistant manager of media relations at Nestle Japan.

There are currently five such boxes located in Hokkaido, Tokyo, Aichi and Hiroshima, at post office, train station and office buildings.

“Nestle Japan will continue to operate five Food Loss Reduction Boxes for the time being, and after confirming and verifying the usage status of our customers and the opinions of the companies where they are installed, we will consider installing more units depending on the situation​,” Murata added.