Product Focus　No.4 Frozen Food

　MUJI’s Frozen Food series has been enjoying high level of popularity among customers since its debut in 2018. In the first place, there were only 50 items sold at four MUJI stores. Now, we offer a total of 72 items in seven series and they are being sold at 62 MUJI stores across Japan as well as the MUJI online store.

■MUJI’s Frozen Food
　MUJI has been handling food items since its birth in 1980. However, due to the limited space in the sales floor, our main product lineup in food focuses on instant foods, confectionery and other items that customers favored, and there were no basic items for daily life. Nowadays, as the number of dual-income household increases and the aging of society accelerates, we have heard many people saying that they cannot spend much time on cooking. Until now, the role of supporting customers’ dining table is mainly played by the instant food series, but the problem has been that all the ingredients are boiled down and for some ingredients, the original color cannot be beautifully presented. If we could develop a series of frozen foods that are freshly made and stored, then we would be able to handle even leafy vegetables that are difficult to store in instant packages, thus bringing more fresh dishes to the dining table of as many customers as possible. With this idea in mind, we developed the frozen food series.
　In addition, to provide frozen foods with a sense of security and visibility, all packages are made transparent. Customers won’t feel any gaps between the real content and the image picture on the package.

■Supporting Daily Dining
　We develop products based on the concept of a single product that is safe, tasty, and reliable to support the daily dining table of customers. For example, one rice ball has the amount of about half bowl of rice, so it is easy for women and children to eat, and can be used in every aspect of daily life including late dinner. In addition, besides a lineup of Japanese dishes, such as Deep Fried Chicken and Simmered Mackerel with Miso, we also developed dishes that are unusual for families to enjoy at home such as Bacon & Cheese Quiche and Samgyetang, and we enriched the sweets series, such as Cream Daifuku and Mitarashidango. In this way, we wish to deliver the fun of food to the dining table of our customers.
　Unlike ordinary frozen foods, MUJI’s frozen foods usually requires one more step before they could be enjoyed. However, thanks to this, the original taste of the food can be fully enjoyed. For example, a sandwich should first be thawed by a microwave oven and then be heated in an oven toaster to make it delicious.

■Future Evolution
　At present, MUJI's frozen food series consists of seven product categories: ingredient-based side dishes, ingredient-based dishes from the world, Japanese confectionery, world-wide stewed dishes, freshly baked deliciousness, meat-based delicacies, and fish-based delicacies. However, we believe that there are still product categories that we have not yet developed. For example, we are considering developing a range of products for simple cooking, such as cut vegetables for making curry and bags of ingredient sets. We would like to develop products that could reduce the burden of cooking at home while providing delicious food to the dining table by simply adding the final steps.