The delivery deadline of the so-called ‘one-third’ rule is going to be experimentally extended to half of the edible period for snacks and drinks in some regions of the country.

The ‘one-third’ rule is a commercial practice of dividing the period between the production date and expiration date into one-thirds. Food producers have to deliver items to retailers by the first one-third of this period. The end of the next one-third of the period is the deadline for retailers to sell these items in their stores; if these items are not sold by then, the retailers are prohibited to sell these items in the market.

 Because of the one-third rule, there is more than an annual economic loss of 150 billion yen.

The revision of the one-third rule has started last year.

As a result, some decisions were made by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Distribution Economics Institute’s working team. One of the decisions made was to experimentally extend the delivery deadline.

Amongst all types of food items, snacks and drinks are more likely to be wasted.

Snacks are often wasted because of their short edible period.

Drinks are often wasted because there are extremely frequent changes and revisions of products packages and product brands.

For these two types of items, the delivery date is going to be extended from the first one-third to half of the period of its edible period.

We hope that there will be more progress towards a food loss-less society.