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  Research on Rice KAMEDA SEIKA has been expanding its business of rice cracker/snack manufacturing and marketing as its core business. On the other hand, we continue to pursue studies for potential efficacies of rice. The research and development works for new functional foods have been conducted focusing on health efficacies of rice, utilizing accumulated technologies and know-hows through researches on rice for the past 20 years.
 
“Dream Rice” is low protein rice for the patients suffering from a kidney disease.It is aseptically packed rice with its protein contents resolved and reduced by enzyme treatment and its protein contents are kept reduced to from one fifth to one thirty fifth compared with those of the ordinary rice. As the intake amount of protein increases the burden over the kidneys of the patients suffering from a chronic kidney disease, the intake amount is expected to be restricted. Japanese people are said to take in around 15 grams of protein by only taking ordinary boiled rice three times a day. You may be able to contain the intake of protein by taking “Dream Rice” so that well balanced intake of other proteins from other food items would be made possible. The patients can delay their inevitable passage to the artificial dialysis as well as they can substantially improve their quality of life. It is named “Dream Rice” after the above mentioned dreamy efficacies.  
We started to develop fermented drinks utilizing the “plant origin lactic acid bacteria” identified in the curse of development of “Dream Rice”. However, we found the drinks tasty but lacking in something. We wondered what would happen if we changed them to other different lactic acid bacteria or if we had better utilize such peculiar lactic acid bacteria to KAMEDA SEIKA that are of unique functionalities not shared by those lactic acid bacteria of dairy product manufacturers. Having more than 300 strains of lactic acid bacteria isolated from rice and fermented rice foods, K-1 bacterium was finally selected through a series of functionality experiments. K-1 bacterium is a lactic acid bacterium isolated from rice and is prominent in the calming effect of intestinal disorders and eliminating effect of mutagenic substances, namely, the substances causing mutation by damaging genes of human cells.  
This lactic acid bacterium isolated from lees of sake, Japanese rice wine, has antiallergenic effects over such allergic symptoms as pollen allergy or atopic dermatitis.
It is said that about one in three of Japanese people currently suffer from some sort of allergy. Although foods coping with pollen allergy have gradually been developed in line with the growing trend of people with pollen allergy symptoms year after year, there are still a small number of foods available with an easing effect over atopic dermatitis.
Then, we got a new study started in 2006 with the faith that the Quality of Life should be improved for those who suffer from allergy by identifying specific lactic acid bacteria which could help easing allergenic symptoms including atopic allergy, focusing on the plant origin lactic acid bacteria within the Japanese traditional fermented foods.
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