The out-of-spec vegetable home-delivery service \"Loss-Heru\" has partnered with Japan Post to begin sales at post offices nationwide. The familiar post office is becoming a new point of contact for reducing food loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On January 19, 2026, \"Loss-Heru,\" the out-of-spec vegetable home-delivery service operated by Ecness Inc., officially began its partnership with Japan Post. Loss-Heru's out-of-spec vegetable products can now be purchased at post office counters nationwide and on Japan Post's EC site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Out-of-spec vegetables are vegetables deemed unshippable for appearance reasons such as blemishes or deformation. Despite having no problem with taste or nutrition, they have been discarded. Loss-Heru gathers such vegetables from farmers across the country and delivers them to consumers atup to 30% cheaper<\/strong>than general retail prices. Since the service launched in 2022, it has surpassed a cumulative total of over 10,000 boxes shipped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The point worth noting in this partnership is the choice of \"post offices.\" With roughly 24,000 branches across Japan, post offices exist not only in urban areas but also in mountainous regions and remote islands. Even in areas with few supermarkets or convenience stores, the post office is a presence rooted in daily life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is clear that Loss-Heru is aiming to reach a wide range of people, including the senior generation, and this could become a major opportunity to make consumers who have had little familiarity with EC aware of out-of-spec vegetables. According to Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries data, Japan's food loss amounts to roughly 4.72 million tons per year (fiscal 2022). That works out to each person discarding the equivalent of one rice ball every day. The effect of a daily point of contact like the post office in spreading awareness of this problem is no small thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The partnership between Loss-Heru and Japan Post also offers implications for the food processing industry in terms of \"diversifying distribution routes\" for out-of-spec vegetables. Out-of-spec vegetables face an appearance barrier when sold as is, but once dried or powdered, shape and size no longer matter. Even vegetables that don't come in uniform sizes become uniform products once processedas vegetable powder or dried vegetables,<\/a>because they become a homogeneous product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ingenuity for vegetables that aren't suited to drying<\/a>as a powder ingredient, for ichimi, shichimi, and making original seasonings, seeThe relationship between off-spec vegetables and food loss<\/a>is touched on in a separate article, but the model of sourcing out-of-spec produce from farmers, processing it, and turning it into products has already entered the practical stage. Now that consumer awareness is shifting from \"appearance over value\" to \"value over appearance,\" when overlaid withtrends in the food OEM market,<\/a>the need for product development that makes use of out-of-spec materials is expected to grow further going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy post offices? The distribution power of 24,000 branches nationwide<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The option of processing and making use of out-of-spec vegetables<\/h2>\n\n\n\n