Unsaleables are any food or consumer products deemed to be unfit for sale through primary market channels. There are many causes of unsaleables throughout the supply chain ranging from package design to product handling. The industry has been working collaboratively on this issue for over 10 years.

The Joint Industry Unsaleables Protocol has been in place since 1997 and has resulted in a significant decline in the incidence benchmark and handling rate of unsaleable products.

The jointly agreed principles are:

• Reducing the absolute incidence of unsaleables
• Reducing the cost of unsaleables
• Creating a sense of accountability around unsaleables, both individually and jointly
• Increasing the use of fact based decision-making
• Increasing visibility/understanding of the true costs of handling unsaleables
• Building trust in the process via visibility and auditing

For more information on this industry initiative, see the following report: A User's Guide for the ECR Unsaleables Recommendations — Effective May 2011