Ezaki Glico (Glico) is one of Japan’s most well-known confectionery and snack companies, famous for its Glico-brand soft candies and Pocky-branded stick biscuits.
“Glico is a partner in the upcoming Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, and we have decided to utilize Japan’s key staple food, rice as the main ingredient for our innovation,” Glico Nutritious Confectionary and Supplement Business Division spokesman Takayoshi Machida said.
“That said, one of our main areas of focus in developing this product was to offer an experience that reveals the new appeal and wider potential of rice beyond the rice bowl, hence we decided to apply the soft candy technology that Glico has cultivated for over 100 years into this innovation.
“The priority has been to create a flavour that is simple yet delicately unfolds to unmistakably be that of rice.
“Because the flavour of rice is so mild, along the way we realised we had to remove all the dairy ingredients to ensure that the rice was not overpowered - and since dairy is usually the main ingredient used in soft candy production, our new formulation for rice soft candy had to made from scratch.
Machida also highlighted that the ingredients list is straightforward and simple, with just five main items.
“This soft candy has been made with only rice-derived ingredients and sugar - all of these ingredients are very simple and listed clearly on the label so it is as clean as it can be,” he said in response to queries from FoodNavigator-Asia.
“The five ingredients are: Rice syrup which is a traditional natural sweetener, Rice flour which is finely ground rice with a subtle rice aroma, Rice protein which helps with aroma and shaping the candy, Rice bran oil to adjust the smoothness and stickiness, and of course sugar.
“This simple formulation was deliberately created to highlight the natural flavour and appeal of rice itself.”
Glico’s rice soft candy will be exclusively distributed at the Expo 2025 event for now, from May to October 2025.
Rice focus
Glico’s focus on expanding the use cases for rice comes as no surprise as it falls perfectly in line with Japanese government initiatives to increase the use of rice flour to boost food security.
This focus on rice flour is largely due to concerns that the current geopolitical environment would lead to a shortage of wheat flour, and the fact that rice is Japan’s most abundant staple hence would greatly improve the country’s food self-sufficiency rates which have been low for decades.
“The production of this soft candy has used mostly domestic rice and although we cannot reveal the species that is used, a great deal of research has gone into selecting the right variants for the optimal flavour,” he added.
Glico declined to reveal the sugar content of each candy, but stressed that ‘over 50%’ of the ingredients are rice-derived.