The Suntory Group believes information should be available in an accurate and easy to understand way for the customers to ensure customers’ confidence and trust in the products and services we provide. In doing so, information on quality assurance and related activities that we are engaged in should be disseminated through websites and other means.
Accurate and Easy to Understand Labeling
In terms of product labeling, the Group Quality Division has established a system to check for legal compliance and appropriateness, and promotes accurate labeling and easy-to-understand expressions in collaboration with the relevant teams including development and production of each Group company.
Examples of Labeling on Products
Labeling example to prevent drinking alcohol by mistake
A mark that shows that this is an alcohol beverage is put on products to prevent people from mistaking low-alcohol beverages such as Ch-Hi for soft drinks. We also put a mark telling that “this is an alcohol beverage” on the lid of the can and in Braille on our major products.
Labeling examples to warn pregnant and nursing mothers
We also display "Drinking while pregnant or breastfeeding may be harmful to the development of unborn babies or infants” on products in order to evoke caution about alcohol in pregnant and nursing mothers.
Labeling to warn pregnant and nursing mothers
Allergen Labeling
Suntory has investigated raw materials and has confirmed whether or not they need to be indicated on products as allergenic. For our soft drinks, we not only comply 7 mandatory items required to put on the label by the food labeling law but also include 21 recommended items. Although alcoholic beverages are exempted from allergen labeling requirement, we voluntarily put allergen information on our low-alcohol beverages such as beer and Chu-Hi.
Product information (ingredients, nutritional information, etc. can be checked)
"Month/year" labeling for “Best-by” dates
The best-by dates of soft drinks are generally indicated by a “date/month/year”. In order to reduce the environmental impact of inventory management along with ease of understanding for customers, the Suntory Group is working to label products with the best-by date of one year or more as “month/year”.
Introducing our Safety Initiatives to the Customers
We are introducing various initiatives on Suntory’s Commitment to Safety and Reliability website to accurately communicate our pursuit of safety and reliability to our customers. The information display is customized for both desktop computers and smartphones; furthermore, we provide information with consideration for our overseas customers.
Suntory Group's Quality Initiatives Website
As the business activities of the Suntory Group expand globally, we have been engaging in initiatives to improve information disclosure by advancing the design of global quality websites so that our earnest approach and activities toward quality that we have striven for in Japan up until now can be understood by our overseas customers. We will continue to provide information about safety and reliability so that customers can evaluate the activities of the Suntory Group.
Voluntary Recalls
While we do our best to assure quality, we also disclose information appropriately and promptly when problems do arise.
During the period from January 2021 until December 2021, there were no voluntary recalls for which company notices were published in newspapers. There were no recalls due to legal violation. During the same period, there were two instances of information labeling for products and services which violated appropriate regulations and our internal standards.