Nestle Japan to leave industry groups over product description

Nestle Japan Ltd. said it will withdraw from several domestic coffee industry associations, including the Japanese coffee fair trade conference, citing disagreements over the description of its products.

Nestle Japan said Wednesday it has started to call its instant coffee products “regular soluble coffee,” but the conference did not approve the change from “instant coffee” and regards the description in advertisements as misleading.

The Japanese unit of the Swiss food giant argues that its original techniques have managed to produce a new type of coffee product that has the taste and aroma of freshly made coffee, and that they should not be categorized as instant.

“The move is disrupting a specific company’s business activities in an arbitrary manner,” Nestle Japan said.

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