Keep your cells healthy and young so you can eat more candy.
There is perhaps no more iconic Osakan company than Ezaki Glico. Even if you’ve never heard of the name, it’s almost certain you’ve heard of their globally famous snack Pocky, and if you’ve seen any image of Osaka it probably contains their giant illuminated sign towering over the Dotonbori River.
So, it’s only natural that they too would take part in the Osaka-Kanasi World Expo, and I was able to head over and see what they were cooking up for the future of food and candy. Glico doesn’t have their own pavilion there but have teamed up with several other companies for the Osaka Healthcare Pavilion: Nest for Reborn and Earth Mart Pavilion.
The Osaka Healthcare Pavilion is certainly worth making a reservation for if you head out to the Expo. It has a neat concept where you get a personal health report from sensors which also generate a look at yourself 50 years in the future. The specific exhibits change over time and when I went there was a collab with The Game of Life where your 50-years-older self can become a player in the game.
▼ The Osaka Healthcare Pavilion
One such exhibit you’ll see along the way was set up by Glico to announce their recently patented ingredient that they believe can curb the aging process better than any before it.
To accomplish this, they looked at ways to deal with senescent cells, which are cells that have damaged DNA by factors like stress, poor lifestyle, or UV rays and can’t reproduce. When we’re younger, our immune systems are able to completely destroy senescent cells and make room for healthier ones. However, as we age our immune systems weaken and senescent cells are produced at a higher rate, which is why I always go “oooourgh…” when I stand up now.
To put it more simply, the effects of aging such as poor memory, eyesight, strength, and just about everything else are caused by an increasing excess of senescent cells, so researchers with Glico set out to find substances that would assist our immune system in destroying these cells to slow down, and potentially even reverse, the aging process.
They tested some 6,000 ingredients on senescent cells and found the Persian silk tree (Albizia julibrissin), a plant sometimes used in Japanese and Chinese teas, as the most effective. In testing, they found that extract of the Persian silk tree flower caused an additional 20-percent decrease in a sample of senescent cells over 52 hours while having no adverse effects on normal cells.
▼ A sample of Persian silk tree powder was on display at a press conference held by Glico at the Expo.
▼ The exhibit showcases some of the ingredients tested, the process of extracting active compounds, and an animated simulation of their effect on senescent cells.
From here, human trials will be conducted to confirm its effectiveness and further understand the mechanisms at play. If successful, development of this substance as a food ingredient will begin and hopefully will be introduced as a part of commercial products before too long. By the way, these results are expected to apply to all kinds of cells from brain to skin and muscles, you name it.
The Earth Mart Pavilion takes guests on a tour of food and its connection with our lives with a lot of multimedia exhibits like an eerily lifelike 3D CGI sushi chef that’s almost holographic and serves up digital nigiri.
In Glico’s area, there’s a display of foods they gave official mock-ups of based on the imaginations of 5th and 6th graders.
It’s a very Wonka-esque experiment in pure imagination, but unfortunately, many of these concepts will never come to fruition because they rely heavily on magic, such as Angel Chocolate that has wings and makes people who eat it do good things like pick up trash on the street. I do rather like the Watermelon of the Future which has candy instead of seeds and is fortified with nutrients.
Right next to this is the Earth Foods 25 exhibit, which showcases the same number of quintessential Japanese foods that could be used to improve the future of food worldwide. Go ahead and challenge your knowledge of Japanese food by seeing if you can name them all. We’ll put the answers at the end of this article.
All along the walls surrounding this dinner-table-like display is more information about these 25 ingredients and how they can be used in delicious, healthy, and convenient foods.
And in the theme of Earth Foods 25, Glico took it upon themselves to craft a soft candy made almost entirely from Earth Food #1: Rice. It’s about as perfect an example of “easier said than done” as you can find though, since creating that same texture and sweetness of a chewy candy using only rice-based ingredients is a gigantic handicap.
In the end, they came up with a candy made of only five ingredients: rice syrup, sugar, rice flour, rice protein, and rice bran oil. At the moment, these candies are only on display but are planned to be handed out at Earth Mart around the middle of May.
However, I was lucky enough to have gotten a sneak taste of these things courtesy of Glico. In Japanese, it’s called a “caramel” but that’s more in comparison to the soft and chewy texture of typical caramel candies rather than the flavor. In English, they will be called “soft candies” to avoid any confusion.
That being said, it does taste a lot like a caramel, only with a milder sweetness that’s also a little cleaner tasting. The texture is almost exactly the same but it doesn’t have the slight sharp flavor that caramel has. I’d probably describe it as a cereal-flavored caramel, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.
Unfortunately, it seems that this is a concept candy with no plans for a commercial release as of this writing. This means that the only way you’ll be able to try it is by going to the Earth Mart pavilion at Expo 2025 from late May and while supplies last.
Luckily, because this is a relatively smaller pavilion, it doesn’t have any of the crazy lineups that other places at the expo do, making it a great quick stop with some free candy to boot.
Photos ©SoraNews24
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Answers to the 25 foods: Rice flour, mochi, soy milk, Koya-dofu (freeze-dried tofu), anko, daikon, wasabi, Japanese pepper, kanpyo, konnyaku, matcha, citrus (yuzu, daidai, kabosu, sudachi), umeboshi, shiitake & dried shiitake, kombu (kelp), seaweed, agar, fugu (pufferfish), surimi (fish paste), dried bonito, koji, sake & mirin, soy sauce & miso, tsukemono (pickled vegetables)