Safe and reliable raw material procurement

Sapporo Breweries

Sapporo Breweries has the belief that “quality materials make quality beer”, and conducts testing and research on processing technologies, material harvesting, barley and hop development (breeding). Harvesting technologies and various breeds cultivated through these activities have also supported the current “Collaborative Contract Farming System”. Our research findings have received many awards, including the March 15, 2018 JSBBA Award for Achievement in Technological Research.
*For more information about our research activities and results, please visit the following link.
For more information about our research efforts and results, click here.

The Collaborative Contract Farming System

Sapporo Breweries applies the “Collaborative Contract Farming System” for hop and malt (barley) procurement, as these are the main ingredients of beer. This system focuses on production areas and cooperates with producers from harvest to processing procedures. The three main elements of this system are:

1. Well-defined information on barley and hop production area and producers
2. Well-defined information on production methods
3. Communication exchange between the company and producers

Sapporo Breweries conducts in-house training on crop harvesting, processing and breeding for staff called “fieldmen”. These staff members actively communicate with crop producers to create high-quality raw materials. This results not only in delicious beer, but also provides a firm grasp on procurement “where”, “who” and “how” questions. The foundation of “deliciousness” is safety and reliability.

Raw material evaluation conducted by our in-house research division

The research division of Sapporo Breweries conducts raw material evaluation at procurement. The Raw Material Development Laboratory's raw Material Solution Group and Hokkaido Raw Material Research Group analyzes features and components of raw materials barley, malt and hops, and also sub-raw materials, to confirm their quality as raw materials for beer, happoshu and new genre beverages.

POKKA SAPPORO Food & Beverage

POKKA SAPPORO Food & Beverage conducts risk evaluations on new raw materials to be incorporated into products, based on original standards formulated by the company’s rich experience. Food safety and food defense, recent hop topics, are some perspectives that are incorporated when making selections. Additionally, inspections at local farms and factories are conducted as necessary to make decisions for selection and for guidance. Furthermore, systematic sanitation and quality factory inspections are conducted for verification and guidance for raw materials already under use, to confirm their quality standard information.

*Food safety is an initiative to ensure food safety by risk evaluation and management of factors that can be assumed hazardous through the manufacturing/supply procedures, to prevent/reduce contamination risks. *Food defense is an initiative to prevent intentional or unintentional hazards in foods.

Sapporo Lion

Sapporo Lion always has “Safe, reliable, and authentic” as its first priority. The food ingredients offered to our customers have been procured from origins that ensure the constancy of safety and supply, through close examination of logistic systems, past performances and industry reviews.
We regularly visit produce regions for ingredients that come directly from farms, and ascertain produce methods, processing procedures and sanitation levels of processing factories before procurement. Furthermore, in our efforts toward further quality enhancement, we invite producers to our restaurants in the metropolitan area so they can view how their produce is served to customers. We also make efforts to improve quality maintenance of products and processed goods excluding farm-direct items, through activities such as regular factory inspections.