A commodity recognition apparatus comprises an image capturing unit for capturing image of a commodity in an image capturing area, a first unit for illuminating a first illumination area closer to the image capturing unit within the image capturing area according to an exposure period of the image capturing unit, a second unit for illuminating a second illumination area including part of the first illumination area and an area further than the first illumination area from the image capturing unit within the image capturing area for an illumination period according to the exposure period, and a control module for controlling, if overexposure of the image is detected, an execution timing of the second unit so that a shifting amount of the illumination period of the second unit to an exposure period next to the exposure period in which the overexposure is detected is different from a predetermined reference value.