Why Digital Food Labels are the Most Powerful tool for Food Brands to engage with Consumers

The journey of Food and Health is ever evolving. With changing patterns of food intake and purchases, consumers are becoming more and more conscious and aware of their buys. A Food Label on the product would be able to declare mandatory information about the product as required by the regulations. However due to limitations of label space and size most information may not be communicated to the consumer.

Digital Food Labels on the other hand is dynamic in nature and enabled by a QR code, which a consumer can scan to know the complete details of the product. Complete details over here mean details of the product, including ingredients, nutrition information and claims, product story on manufacturing, health, clean label, organic, locally sourced, natural, use of additives, sourcing, processing done, sustainability, range of products, and much more.

As the world is adopting Digital systems in even critical areas such as money, then why leave food products behind.

Mera QR Code- Create your Food Label with QR Code in less than 30 minutes

FoLSol®- Food Label Solutions has launched the ‘Pre-Packed Food Labelling with Mera QR Code’ Software tool for Food Businesses looking to create food labels in a hassle-free way. Food Business will be able to create a QR Code enabled Web Page and download Food Label in less than 30 minutes. 'Mera QR Code’ is a dedicated, customizable website for your products - thus called as Mera QR Code (My QR Code).

There are two services we are offering:

1. Pre-Packed Food Labelling- For Businesses looking to create a Food label for their product with complete regulatory compliance.

2. Food Labelling with Mera QR Code- For Businesses looking to share their food product story with hundreds and thousands of consumers through a QR code enabled Digital Label.

To know more visit website: Create your own Product Page | Mera QR Code (foodlabelsolutions.com)

Why choose Mera QR Code?

Mera QR Code is the most impactful way of building trust through transparency of your product story with your consumers. By generating QR code based Digital Food Labels for packaged products, your reach to consumers and potential consumers would be much more.

The key benefits are as follows:

1. Comprehensive information about your product.

Ingredients, Nutrition Information, Legal Metrology, Allergens, Additives, Manufacturing / Packing/ Marketing Addresses, Natural, Organic, Fortified, Certifications of testing and quality, Brand Story, Detailed Product description including processing methods, Sustainability, range of products, Special Offers, etc.

2. Better than regular advertising, since it is based on a scientific nutrition quality assessment model - Positive Nutrition Labelling (PNL).

Along with the QR Code based Digital Label, Positive Nutrition Labelling assessment is also done for your Product. PNL (Positive Nutrition Labelling) Assessment is done using 6 parameters critical to any food product. It is based on FSSAI Guidelines for Purity, Clean Label, Nutrition, Lifestyle, along with Industry best practices in Sustainability and Processing. Each parameter is given a certain weightage and is rated on a scale of 1-5. PNL acts like an internal check mechanism for you to check your product. It builds confidence in your product and allows you to share tangible benefits of the product through established regulatory metrics to your customers.

The 6 Positive Nutrition Labelling parameters are detailed out here:

1. Purity- Checked for adulterants, contaminants, residues limits and other quality parameters that as per FSSAI regulations.

2. Clean Label- Assessed for ingredient quality, presence of food additives, and nature of the product.

3. Nutrition- Assessed for macronutrients and micronutrient quality in the product.

4. Lifestyle- Assessed for consumer food preferences and allergen information

5. Processing- Assessed for processing methods applied to food product from farm to fork

6. Sustainability- Assessed to ensure eco-friendly practices used to produce food.

3. 100% regulatory compliance in Food Labelling

Our Software tool follows a step-by-step approach towards label creation. The struggle of being regulatory compliant and never missing any notification from the regulators is on us. You will be able to create a 100% regulatory compliant food label with ease with the comfort of editing the information at any time and at any place.

4. Easy-to-refer information on mobile phones

The Digital Label created through our tool will enable consumers to refer the product information on their mobile phones at their comfort.

5. Link to shopping carts

The Digital Label can further be linked to your e-commerce carts like amazon, big basket, JioMart. This will not only drive traffic, but also increase your reach by giving you the opportunity to share your product story in a transparent manner.

6. Link to social media pages and your website

The QR Code can be integrated on to your product pack and can be shared on social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp, your website and much more.

Features

Your Food Labelling checklist is all ticked with the following features of Mera QR Code:

• Ready-to-integrate regulatory compliant food label: The Food Label created on the tool is 100% Regulatory Compliant and can be readily integrated on product packs with minimum efforts.

• Unique QR Code with Personalized URL feature: The QR Code generated for each food product is unique in nature with feature to customize your Product URL page.

• Complete end-to-end Label Management Services: Edit, Update, Download, Manage- we have covered all. Your complete label management services are under one roof for a hassle- free usage.

• Periodic Regulatory Updates: All Regulatory updates and notifications will be taken care by us. The tool will be updated to carry all the updates so that regulatory compliance is ensured.

• Front of Pack labelling: FoLSol® offers Front of Pack Labelling tool for Food Businesses to comply with the recently released regulations on Indian Nutrition Rating (INR). Please check our website www.foodlabelsolutions.com/d/fopl for details.

Global examples of digital food labelling applications

1. EU mandates digital labelling for grocery retailers

A recent legislation by the European Union mandates declaration of nutrients for groceries sold online. It requires online grocery retailers to display nutritional composition of products on their consumer-facing websites. This makes it important to focus on availability of structured product data via private and public food composition databases (FCDB), such as 1WorldSync, Atrify, and Open Food Facts. These data can in turn be used to develop novel tools displaying FOPL on online grocery websites, thus supporting users’ decision-making and potentially leading to beneficial behavior changes without requiring physical changes to product packaging.

2. Danone - SmartLabel programme

To provide consumers with access to more detailed product information beyond details that could ever fit a package, the SmartLabel programme was launched by the Trading Partner Alliance (TPA) in 2015. It helps brands provide accurate and up-to-date information on ingredients, nutrition, and allergens, instructions of use, disposal instructions, etc on their website link. Consumers can scan the SmartLabel QR code found on product packages using a phone’s camera or any QR code reader to access the web-based product page.

Coca-Cola believes that the adoption of SmartLabel programme helps to improve consumers’ access to information and allows the firm to gain consumer insights.

In 2020, Danone launched its baby formula Track & Connect service – a digitally-enabled service giving consumers and retailers greater transparency on the product’s farm-to-fork journey. Furthermore, through Danone’s Track & Connect service, consumers and retailers will eventually be able to access new data-driven, personalized after-sales support and services for its baby formula brands like Aptamil, Karicare, Laboratoire Gallia and Nutrilon. Danone believes that the Track and Connect service provides additional assurance to the consumers in terms of product authenticity.

3. Mondelēz International - ‘Snacking Right’ platform

Mondelēz International developed a ‘Snacking Right’ platform that is accessible by scanning the QR code found on the outer packaging. A global-first, this on-pack QR code project was piloted by Mondelēz International for its 2022 UK summer promotion across a range of Cadbury, Oreo, and Barny products.

This digital platform provides information about the company’s sustainability initiatives, including recycling and mindful snacking to help consumers “snack right”, without the addition of multiple labels on the physical packs.

4. Yuka

Yuka is a food and cosmetic product scanner app. It provides an overall evaluation of products you scan.

For food, each product is evaluated according to three key areas:

• nutritional quality which represents 60% of the score

• presence of additives which represents 30% of the score

• organic aspect which represents 10% of the score

These are then scored out of 100 points and accompanied by a colour-coded indicator.

What is unique about this form of a digital label is that it is independent from any influence from a brand or manufacturer. The scores and recommendations offered depend on factors set by Yuka (as mentioned above) and are applied without discrimination.

When a product is deemed to have a negative impact on health, Yuka will recommend healthier alternatives.

They also added an ‘eco-score’ in March 2021, which analyses the impact of products on the environment. 21 food and cosmetic companies also stated that Yuka has impacted their product formulation, which includes Nestle France.

Conclusion

Mera QR Code is a unique Software which is India’s 1st QR Code enabled Digital Food labelling tool. By building trust through transparency, the Digital Food Labelling software will enable safe and healthy food choices, regulatory compliance and easy mobile viewing.

To get started, leave us an enquiry. FoLSol®| Contact Us (foodlabelsolutions.com)

To know more refer the FAQs section. Digital Label FAQs | Labelblind (foodlabelsolutions.com)

References

1. Fuchs KL, Lian J, Michels L, Mayer S, Toniato E, Tiefenbeck V. Effects of Digital Food Labels on Healthy Food Choices in Online Grocery Shopping. Nutrients. 2022 May 13;14(10):2044. doi: 10.3390/nu14102044. PMID: 35631185; PMCID: PMC9146588

2. Digital Labelling - The Future of Smarter Food Labelling in Asia, 2022.

3. https://www.danone.com/content/dam/danone-corp/danone-com/medias/medias-en/2020/brandnews/Danone_Track_and_Connect_20200213_EN.pdfm - accessed on 15/11/22

4. https://www.mondelezinternational.com/News/QR-Code-Pilot-on-UK-Packs - accessed on 15/11/22

5. https://yuka.io/en/ - accessed on 15/11/22