According to the results of a voluntary experiment to block the sale of expired products, their share decreased by a quarter. Blocking of overdue and illegal products may become mandatory as early as spring 2024 - the draft government decree on this was developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
According to the results of a voluntary experiment on blocking expired goods at the checkout with the help of the "Honest Sign" marking, the overdue sales of the participants in the experiment decrease to almost zero as the mechanism is replicated to all stores. And in total, sales of expired labeled products across the country decreased by 25% during the experiment - from more than 10 million units to 7.5 million units, the Center for the Development of Advanced Technologies (CRPT) told RG.
The experiment was conducted from February 1 to August 1, 2023 for certain types of dairy products, bottled drinking and mineral water, beer and some low-alcohol beverages, tobacco products. All these products are marked with an "Honest Mark". Most of the delays were detected in dairy products.
At the time of scanning at the checkout, the seller receives information about the expiration date of the goods from the labeling system. If the product is overdue, the sale is blocked.
At the time of scanning at the checkout, the seller received information about the expiration date of the goods from the "Honest Mark" marking system. If the system fixed the delay, the sale was blocked. At the same time, stores did not need to buy additional equipment - it was enough to configure the software.
Over the entire time of the experiment, more than 30 federal and regional retail chains joined it, as well as some representatives of small-format trade. Many participants of the experiment continue to use the technology even after its completion, they say in the CRPT.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade "RG" said that according to the results of the experiment, the agency has developed a draft government decree, which establishes a list of cases of banning the sale of illegal goods (an attempt to sell a product whose labeling code is missing in the system, withdrawn from circulation, blocked by the authorized body, not put into circulation, the verification code of which is not verified, an attempt to sell tobacco products with violation of the permitted price), as well as products with expired shelf life. The draft also establishes the procedure for applying this ban: it will be introduced in stages, taking into account the characteristics of product groups and the readiness of technological solutions, the first stage of which may come as early as spring 2024. This will actually make blocking the sale of overdue and illegal products mandatory for stores.
To control the expiration dates in large retail, there are several stages of verification - from the moment the goods are received at the warehouse of the outlet, continuing with control at the time of laying out and checks throughout the working day, the chairman of the Presidium of the Association of Retail Companies (ACORT) told RG Igor Karavaev. But there is a factor of human error. "Therefore, additional control at the checkout is an additional guarantee for the buyer, and an opportunity to completely eliminate the risks of selling expired products throughout the industry," Karavaev believes.
The share of write-offs of products (and this is basically a delay) is in the range of 1.5-2%, estimates the chairman of the Consumer Union of Russia, Peter Shelishch. But in liters and kilograms, the figure is impressive. According to the expert, this practice should be made mandatory. And it is possible to strengthen control over delays in other products (for example, in meat or ready-made food) if the moratorium on inspections is lifted, the expert believes.
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