With the World Food Championships set to take place in Indianapolis in October 2025, the US red meat industry stepped up to support two qualifying events in Japan for burgers and barbecue. Considered the world’s largest food sport competition, the WFC will be held Oct. 16–19 at the Indiana Farm Bureau pavilion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center.

Japan Burger Championship

As a qualifying contest for the WFC, the Japan Burger Championship has become a competition for famous hamburger restaurants throughout Japan. The event is also popular with consumers, with more than 70,000 attending the three-day event in Yokohama in June 2025.

Under a theme of “Taste of America,” teams competed with original hamburger recipes using US beef—chuck eye roll and brisket—and US cheese. The winning team will join the Japanese team that earned a seed at the 2024 WFC to represent Japan in the burger category at the 2025 championships. During this year’s event in Yokohama, 30 hamburger shops set up food trucks to sell hamburgers to 70,000 attendees.

Japan BBQ Championship

Following the popularity of the burger championship, Japan also hosted its first-ever qualifier for the WFC’s barbecue category. Held in Chiba Prefecture, teams competed by grilling US pork spareribs and chicken. Since it was a one-day event, organizers did not include beef brisket, which is one of the products in the barbecue category at the WFC. So, the US Meat Export Federation cooked and sampled US beef brisket for attendees at its booth.

USMEF has been promoting US beef brisket to the foodservice sector in Japan since summer 2024, meeting individually with importers and providing samples to their end-user customers. USMEF continues to support this initiative by conducting seminars and demonstrating various barbecuing techniques that can be used in foodservice.

Funding support for the two events was provided by the Nebraska Corn Board, National Pork Board and Beef Checkoff Program.

Source: US Meat Export Federation