Food Safety

Basic Approach

At the Maruha Nichiro Group, we work to supply safe, quality food to customers and pursue food that customers can feel safe eating by putting ourselves in the customer's shoes and considering the type of quality they are looking for. This approach comes from our Quality Assurance System based on the Maruha Nichiro Group Philosophy and the Maruha Nichiro Group Quality Assurance Policy.

To that end, we take an array of measures, from product development to delivery to the customers, as well as in all the processes thereafter. At the same time, we provide employees with quality assurance training to raise the level of their knowledge and skills and heighten awareness about quality.

Management Structure

The Maruha Nichiro Group has established a system in which the Managing Executive Officers' Committee is the highest decision-making body for quality assurance. It is also in charge of setting and implementing necessary quality assurance policies and initiatives. In addition, the Quality Assurance Committee has been established as an advising body to the Managing Executive Officers' Committee to deliberate on advisory matters.

The Quality Assurance Department at Maruha Nichiro, the central company of the Group, serves as the focal point of the Group's quality assurance by formulating various policies, monitoring and supporting improvements in management status through quality audits and product information maintenance, collecting and disclosing information on quality and labeling, and initiating employee training programs to increase quality awareness.

Responsible persons and persons in charge of quality assurance are appointed for each Company department and Group company to communicate information about Group policies and measures as well as to create and implement quality assurance plans and measures.

Quality Assurance Structure

KGIs and KPIs from FY2022 to FY2030

Materiality: Provision of safe and secure food

Ideal state in 2030 (KGI): Providing safe food to people around the world

Achievement targets (KPI)					Target year		Target value		FY2022
									Achievements						Self-assessment
Major quality incidents*1  (Domestic G*2)					2024		zero		Four Major quality incidents occurred						★☆☆☆☆

*1 Serious quality-related incidents are defined as product recalls announced in newspapers or on the Company's Web site due to violations of relevant regulations and voluntary codes as specified in GRI Standards 416-2 and 417-2

*2 Domestic G= Domestic Group Consolidate d Companies

Note: The department in charge is the Quality Assurance Department, Maruha Nichiro Corporation.

Message from Representative

Tomoyuki Okumura

Quality Assurance Department
General Manager

As stated in our corporate philosophy, our business is to provide wholesome, safe, and healthy food. On the other hand, changes in the social environment in the world are affecting each process of procurement, processing, sales, and logistics, and it is becoming more difficult to provide consistent quality day by day. In the last three years, we have been unable to visit domestic and overseas production sites due to COVID-19, but from FY2023, we have been actively visiting to communicate face-to-face, identify issues firsthand, and start working to resolve them. We are also working to introduce a new system to strengthen product information management and enhance training contents to develop personnel responsible for quality assurance. In order to continue to provide safe food to customers for many years to come, we will first build a systematic and robust quality assurance system to realize our ideal state for 2030, "Providing safe food to people around the world."

Main Initiatives in FY2022

Product Incidents and Measures to Prevent Recurrence

The Maruha Nichiro Group implements various initiatives to ensure the safety and security of its products. However, in the unlikely event that a product sold to a customer is found to have a serious defect or flaw, we will promptly make a public announcement and recall the product in question.

In fiscal 2022, there were four serious quality incidents* in the Maruha Nichiro Group. In addition to promptly recalling the products in question, we are investigating the causes in depth and implementing countermeasures. We are also working to prevent recurrence by sharing the causes and countermeasures with relevant parties within the Group.

^*Serious quality-related incidents are defined as product recalls announced in newspapers or on the Company's website due to violations of relevant regulations and voluntary codes.

Overview of Serious Quality-Related Incidents in FY2022

Product category	Content	Company of occurrence
Commercial prepared food	Missing label of allergens	Group companies
Commercial heated meat product	Incorrect labeling of the country of origin of raw materials	Group companies
Commercial prepared food	Missing label of expiry date	Maruha Nichiro Corporation
Commercial heated meat product	Product spoilage	Group companies

Furthermore, in order to prevent the occurrence of "serious quality accidents," the Maruha Nichiro Group has defined "complaints leading to voluntary recalls" that may lead to "serious quality accidents" and is working to eliminate such complaints. The following three specific activities are being undertaken.

(1) Activities to prevent even a single defective product from leaving the factory or outside the company
(2) Efforts to eliminate complaints that lead to voluntary recalls
(3) Efforts to reduce problems in the manufacturing process

In (1), we have established a communication system to ensure that problems are addressed when they occur and to prevent the outflow of defective products through mechanical control even if a problem occurs at directly managed plants and domestic Group production sites by June 2022.

In (2), we are working to "eliminate complaints that lead to voluntary recalls" by promoting the introduction of inspection equipment, etc., mainly at the production bases of the Processed Foods Unit, starting in July 2022. We plan to gradually expand the scope of our activities in the future.

In parallel with (2), (3), a survey on the occurrence of problems was conducted at directly managed plants and domestic Group production sites from September 2022, based on the initiatives described in (1). Going forward, we will work to reduce the number of incidents that lead to quality-related accidents through the identification of issues and the formulation of solutions.

Providing Accurate Product Specification Information

Maruha Nichiro Corporation handles a wide range of products, from foods close to raw materials such as marine products, livestock products, and agricultural products to processed foods. In response, Maruha Nichiro will introduce a new system that will enable integrated management of product specification information, starting in fiscal year 2023, in order to provide accurate product specification information not only within the company but also to customers, such as business partners.

Promote quality education and training

Overview of Quality Education and Training

Although it was difficult to conduct group training in FY2022 due to the infection situation of the new coronavirus, we continued our efforts to ensure the competence of employees by further promoting remote training while maintaining the quality of content through the use of e-learning for training and other measures. As a result, a total of 8,583 employees took the course, approximately double the number of the previous year, partly due to the ease of adjusting participants' schedules. We will continue to enhance the content and maintain and improve the level of employee education and training.

Type of training	Total sessions	Participants
Food label training (learning about universal guidelines, frozen food, shelf-stable food, seafood products, livestock products and practicing food label)	18 times	800 people
Quality management workshops (factory hygiene management)	5 times	485 people
Food defense workshops	7 times	323 people
FSSC/ISO22000 standards study session	1 time	112 people
FSSC 22000 internal auditor training (introductory training, skill advancement training)	4 times	86 people
Food bacteria training	2 times	593 people
Skills training for food bacteria inspectors	1 time	33 people
Practical inspection skills training for food bacteria inspectors	1 time	9 people
Customer service training	5 times	877 people
Customer feedback monitoring training	18 times	5,188 people
Customer service training	2 times	77 people

Strengthening Factory Audits and Guidance

In FY 2022, we continued to maintain and improve the level of food safety and food protection by flexibly responding to the situation by resuming the implementation of factory audits and guidance by visiting contract manufacturers of our products while monitoring the infection situation of the new coronavirus, and also by using communication applications to conduct remote audits in combination. In addition, as we accelerate the provision of food not only in Japan but also globally, we will further strengthen our quality assurance system, including factory audits and guidance systems, by stationing quality assurance personnel in China and Southeast Asia, in addition to the conventional combination of on-site and remote audits. We will continue to strengthen our factory inspection and guidance system so that we can respond flexibly to changes in the environment.