Quality Management

Policies and Our Approach

The Suntory Group has always striven to better the quality of its products and services with a customer first approach since its founding. Every employee always endeavors to sustain and improve quality according to the Suntory Quality Policy of "All for the Quality," which clarifies our approach to quality, to earn even greater trust from customers.

Promoting Structure

Following the acceleration of its own global development and expansion into new fields of business, the Suntory Group has been enhancing its Quality Management Systems as part of its Group Governance.
We installed the Quality Assurance Committee at Suntory Holdings Ltd. to promote quality management throughout the entire Group. This committee identifies quality risks and prevents trouble before it occurs in priority issues across the organization based on the Group quality strategy.
The Chief Quality Officer (CQO) of Suntory Holdings Ltd. plays a vital role in this process by strengthening the quality management capacities through holding meetings on product quality with each Group company.

The Suntory Group believe that it is our duty to continually deliver high quality products with new value, safety and reliability, able to bring joy to consumers worldwide. Thus, we are committed to producing high-quality, safe and reliable products that delight consumers across the globe. This promise is shared within the group through the Suntory's MONOZUKURI Manufacturing Values and Code of Conduct, which we have held dear and consistently delivered on since our founding.

Our Initiatives

Assuring Quality in All Processes

Grounded in the Suntory Group Quality Policy, our employees are continually working to maintain and improve quality in all of our processes, from product planning and development to material procurement, manufacturing, distribution, sales, and services.

Traceability*

Water, Agricultural crops, and Natural resources

• Regular analysis and inspection
• Development of new water resources
• Research into water quality in Japan and overseas

• Evaluation and selection of suppliers
• Quality auditing of suppliers
• Developing new ingredients and sustainable procurement

Regular inspection of water at the Safety Science Institute

Production site visits (Florida, U.S.A.）

Research and technology development, Product planning and design

• Designs that pursue good taste and functionality
• Risk assessment, from an analytical chemistry perspective, microbiological perspective, and biological perspective, of the products to be manufactured and sold, and safety analysis and inspections

Research and development

• Evaluation of regulatory conformity for constituent materials
• Developing new containers and sustainable procurement
• Performance and safety evaluation

Accurate labeling using easy-to-understand language

• Compliance of food labeling regulations and standards for all products

Manufacturing

• Acquisition of ISO9001 certification, HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critial Control Point)recognition, and FSSC22000 recognition
• Adoption of TPM（Total Production by foreign objects
• Preventing and checking damage to containers, spillage of contents, and contamination of contents by foreign objects
• Strengthening of food defense, including room exit/entrance management and installation of cameras

• Safety, function, and other inspections by expert teams of premium gifts

Exterior check of products

Example of premium gifts attached to products

Delivering

• Sharing quality assurance knowledge with logistics companies
• Checking facilities, temperature, safety and hygiene in warehouses for product storage

• Support for sanitation management and quality control at restaurants
• Seminars on improving quality at the point of consumption aimed at business serving keg draft beer

Draft beer consumption quality improvement seminar

Customers

• Easy-to-understand introduction of safety and security initiatives

Suntory Group's Quality Initiatives Website

*Traceability
Ingredient traceability system such as using two-dimensional codes and social quality assurance activities related to sustainable procurement to realize a sustainable society

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 alcoholic beverage is put on products to prevent people from mistaking low-alcoholic beverages such as Chu-Hi for soft drinks. We also put a mark telling that “this is an alcoholic beverage” on the lid of the can and in Braille on our major products. In addition 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.

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 8 mandatory items required to put on the label by the Food Labeling Standards set by the Consumer Affairs Agency, but also include 20 recommended items. Although alcoholic beverages are exempted from allergen labeling requirement, we voluntarily put allergen information on our low-alcoholic beverages such as beer and Chu-Hi.

Product information (ingredients, nutritional information, etc. can be checked) (in Japanese)

"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.”