No.3686
01/06/2025

Nondestructive Food Inspection Instrument Market: Key Research Findings 2025

Driven by a Chronical Labor Shortage Due to a Shrinking and Aging Population, Demand for Labor Saving in Food Inspection is Increasing in Japan

Yano Research Institute (the President, Takashi Mizukoshi) has surveyed the domestic market of nondestructive food inspection instruments and found out the trends by segment, the trends of market players, and the future outlook.


Transition and Forecast of Nondestructive Food Inspection Instrument Market Size
Transition and Forecast of Nondestructive Food Inspection Instrument Market Size

Market Overview

As consumers become more concerned about food safety, the demand for nondestructive food inspection systems to detect and sort out contaminants during the food manufacturing process is increasing. Driven also by chronic labor shortages, food manufacturers and retailers have a high demand for labor-saving or automated food inspection to improve their work quality and productivity. While the demand for nondestructive food inspection instruments in the domestic market is relatively stable, there is a robust demand in the overseas market that outweighs the domestic demand.
Therefore, the market is expanding, and the market size in terms of shipment value has grown to 53,500 million yen in FY2023, 107.6% of the size of the previous fiscal year, eliminating the negative impact during the pandemic.

Noteworthy Topics

Hyperspectral Imaging (Hyperspectral Camera)

Hyperspectral imaging is the generic term for a technology that collects and processes information across the electromagnetic spectrum from the ultraviolet band, the visible light band, to the near infrared band. A hyperspectral camera obtains wavelength information that can be more than hundreds of bands of the subject, and if the subject is food, it not only sees the appearance, but it can also estimate the components of the subject that can affect quality, such as moisture, fat, sugar, protein, compositional uniformity, etc. It also detects foreign substances that may affect food safety.

Because a hyperspectral camera requires a large amount of money to deploy, it faces some challenges to be widely used in the food industry. Nevertheless, the development of hyperspectral cameras is likely to continue, with more advanced analytical tools working on exploring higher value-added applications not limited to contaminant detection but also freshness quantification, in addition to improving camera performance, size miniaturization, and price reduction.

Future Outlook

As oligopoly is seen in all the markets of visual inspection instruments, internal inspection instruments, and visual/internal inspection systems of agricultural products, which constitute the market of nondestructive food inspection instruments, the performance of major enterprises significantly affects the market size. Each of these markets has escaped from stagnant demand amid the pandemic and is on a growth trend, but changes in customers' business operations may draw another market plunge.
In Japan, a severe labor shortage due to fewer children and an aging population is expected to create a need for labor-saving or automated inspections, which will continue to drive demand for nondestructive food inspection instruments. Robust demand is also expected in the overseas market, where growth is forecast for internal inspection instruments, especially metal detectors and X-ray inspection instruments.

Research Outline

1.Research Period: April to October 2024
2.Research Object: Manufacturers and distributors of nondestructive food inspection instruments, food inspection service providers, food manufacturers and distributors, etc.
3.Research Methogology: Face-to-face interviews (including online) by expert researchers, survey via telephone and email, and questionnaire

The Nondestructive Food Inspection Instrument Market

Nondestructive food inspection instruments in this research include visual inspection instruments (optical, laser, or mechanical sorters), internal inspection instruments (metal detectors and X-ray inspection systems) used in the food or agricultural industry, and external and internal quality inspection instruments including grading machines for farm produce. The market size includes both domestic and export shipments.

<Products and Services in the Market>

visual inspection instruments, internal inspection equipment, external and internal quality inspection instruments including grading machines (sorters) of agricultural products

Published Report

Contact Us

©2021 Yano Research Institute Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
The copyright and all other rights pertaining to this report belong to Yano Research Institute.
Please contact our PR team when quoting the report contents for the purpose other than media coverage.
Depending on the purpose of using our report, we may ask you to present your sentences for confirmation beforehand.