First Japan couldn’t get enough of functional foods, where healthy additives such as vitamins are added to regular foods, now the fad for food additives in clothing has hit the big time.


Food companies such as Ajinomoto have seen their business supplying clothes makers with food ingredients grow massively since the Japanese public started buying food impregnated clothes last year.


Amino acids, vitamins, and regular foods such as caffeine and seaweed are some of the ingredients that have found their way into T-shirts and other garments. The makers claim that such ingredients can be absorbed through the skin but warn that they are no substitute for a regular diet. Doctors and scientists meanwhile remain highly sceptical that the clothes have any nutritional value.

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