In collaboration with Hakutsuru Sake Brewing Co., Ltd., the largest sake manufacturer in the industry, Mitsubishi Plastics Inc. (head office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President Hiroshi Yoshida) has commercialized the world’s first high-barrier PET bottle for use with sake. It has been decided that the bottles will be used for three products (all are 1,500 ml) that Hakutsuru Sake Brewing will introduce throughout Japan on September 20. Mitsubishi Plastics will aggressively work to develop demand in the sake industry, and these efforts will include commercializing bottles of different sizes.

PET bottles are widely used as containers for products such as soft drinks, but they lack the barrier characteristics of glass bottles, and there are concerns that this could negatively impact the contents. Therefore, use of PET bottles has been limited to a very small number of sake products.

These high-barrier PET bottles were developed by Mitsubishi Plastics based on the diamond-like carbon (DLC) technology1 and first used for wine containers, which were introduced last year. Compared to general PET bottles, high-barrier bottles are 10 times better at preventing oxygen permeation than general PET bottles and can maintain the quality of the contents as wells as glass bottles2. They also weigh a mere 58 g, 1/13 the weight of glass bottles of the same size, making them convenient for carrying. Furthermore, producing them generates only 1/53 the amount of CO2 emissions as producing glass bottles. The bottles are also difficult to break, eliminating concerns of breakage even if dropped during the distribution stage, at stores, or in some other situation. On account of these superior characteristics, it is expected that the use of high-barrier PET bottles will spread widely in the sake industry.

Based on its acquired R&D capabilities, including that for high-barrier PET bottles that are now on sale, Mitsubishi Plastics is not only developing demand for alternatives to glass bottles and cartons in the alcoholic beverage market but also striving to create new markets such as in the health care field. At the same time, the Company is moving forward with efforts to build a product supply system to meet the growing demand for high-barrier PET bottles and is examining expanding production capacity at facilities by the spring of 2012.

●Sake in PET bottles sold by Hakutsuru Sake Brewing (all are 1,500 ml)