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The Stories of Wakodo

The first made-in-Japan infant milk formula, “Kinomeal”

Spoilt cow’s milk is killing babies!

Kinomeal packaging changes

Kinomeal packaging changes

Although Ohga was the first president of Wakodo and started many business projects for health and happiness of babies, he did not start his career as an entrepreneur. He was what we would call a state employed public servant, a layman with no knowledge in business management or chemistry and drugs.

Ohga became the President of Wakodo in 1914. Although the founder of Wakodo, Doctor Tsukasa Hirota, was a top level academic, he had neither time nor talent in managing company operations. Ohga learnt that Wakodo’s existence itself was in crisis, and decided to commit to rebuilding the company with a resolve, “I will do whatever it takes to continue these precious products for baby care and save babies’ lives.”

Ohga believed, in order to reduce early childhood mortality, malnutrition in babies should be addressed. There was no infant milk formula in Japan. Instead, cow’s milk with added sugars was mainly used as a breast milk substitute. However, the milk used was of questionable quality. Ohga learnt about this and started to make various investigations on milk.

In those days no common household had a refrigerator or other means to keep cow’s milk in cool storage. Naturally milk was soon spoilt, especially in summer. The distributors and retailers also lacked knowledge about cow’s milk, and often let the quality drop. What surprised Ohga most was the information that many babies lose their lives because they had been fed spoilt cow’s milk.

Ohga was deeply troubled by the information. He started thinking about a way to maintain quality of cow’s milk.

He eventually reached the conclusion, “If cow’s milk could be made into powder, storage would become simple. If good quality milk was obtained by resolving it in water, and, if it became available to common household at any time, it would save lives of many babies.”

ASAHI GROUP FOODS,LTD. become an owner of WAKODO brand products. (As of 1, July 2017)

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