JAPAN - The Ajinomoto Corporation plans to feature labels declaring the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions involved in the production and distribution of such products as food seasonings and frozen foods, according to The Nikkei.

The company will work with its supply chain such as, Dai Nippon Printing Co, and can manufacturer Toyo Seikan KaishIn and will include major retailer Aeon Co Ltd in the process of evaluating total emissions.

Ajinomoto will track emissions generated through the entire supply chain from production through to disposal, and will include not only emissions associated with the food processing itself, but also packaging, transport and other processing steps. The calculations will also account for the post-purchase recycling of packaging material in estimating the carbon footprint per product.

Tracking emissions from the production stage is a difficult task for most processed foods, since they use numerous ingredients. As a result, the emissions labeling will first be limited to seasonings under the Ajinomoto flagship brand, since they have relatively few ingredients.