Call to action for extended food labelling data

A new consumer-focused extended labelling initiative for food products was launched at the Highlands 2011 Senior Executive Forum.

This initiative, which will be facilitated by the smartphone application GS1 GoScan, was unveiled by GS1 Australia CEO Maria Palazzolo at AFGC’s annual conference in the Yarra Valley, where a call to action was made to food manufacturers to populate the GS1net database with their product information.

AFGC Chief Executive Kate Carnell said industry has worked closely with GS1 Australia to develop and test this innovative barcode scanning technology to deliver a global food safety culture and provide more product information for consumers.

“Extended labelling for food products has been successfully trialled and has now become a reality in Australia - we are now calling on industry to get behind this system and, from today, upload their data,” Carnell said.

The technology has the unique capacity to list accurately a large amount of ‘real-time’ product composition data to consumers and to provide extra information about products including country-of-origin labelling, the presence of allergens and other health-related issues.

Palazzolo said the time to act for Australian food manufacturers was now. “We need industry’s support to make extended labelling a success. This issue not only concerns the protection of consumers - it is the protection of our children and families.

Palazzolo also said the recent Blewett Labelling Review report identified an increasing demand for labels to contain more information. “Demand is increasing for government to take a more strategic approach to food labelling policy. Label space is highly contested with competing pressures from consumers and food suppliers. The battle for label space has intensified,” Palazzolo said.

The GS1 GoScan smartphone application enables a consumer to scan the barcode on a product and then receive detailed product composition data, including: ingredient lists; nutritional content; daily intake information; dietary information such as Kosher, Halal, Organic and others; preparation, usage and storage instructions; allergen information; net contents and serving information; country of origin; and product data such as descriptions and images.

GS1 GoScan is expected to be available to consumers early next year.