SMART LABELS
THE NEW LOOK
You’ve just received a notification on your smart phone. Remember that
bottle of wine you bought this afternoon? It’s now chilled and ready to
drink. Could this scenario ever be a reality? Global packaging supplier
Advanta’s export sales manager Miguel Campos explains which countries
are at the forefront of smart labelling.
Issues surrounding product
shelf life, smart labels and
sustainability are all heavily
interlinked — an informed
consumer can make better
decisions about their food usage
and disposal. Smart labels describe
any technology that expands on the
information of a standard product
label. This can include QR codes,
sensors, microchips and image
recognition, among other features.
With growing pressures to reduce
food and packaging waste, any
technology that helps the consumer
make better decisions on food
waste will always be well received.
What’s more, packaging with
built-in sensors or microchips can
help manufacturers ensure quality
and freshness by monitoring the
products temperature during its
journey to the supermarket shelf.
In the United States alone, it’s
estimated that consumers throw
away $29 billion worth of edible
food each year. In fact, America’s
heavy-weight supermarkets are
now involved in the food waste
debate, with Walmart working
towards a zero-waste future. In
light of this, a smart label digital
initiative has been launched by the
Grocery Manufacturers Association
(GMA) and the Food Marketing
Institute (FMI) across the food,
snacks and baking industry. In a
programme created in collaboration
with manufacturers and retailers,
consumers are now able to scan QR
codes to receive more information
on particular products.
Some of the tens of thousands
of products that are smart labelenabled
include Flowers Foods,
Nature’s Own and Dave’s Killer
Bread. But, the US food industry
is also dipping its toes into other
technologies to enhance its smart
labelling efforts.
Last year, researchers at Clarkson
University in New York created
a paper-based sensor to inform
consumers when food is about to
expire. The sensor changes colour
when it encounters spoiled food,
with the intensity of the colour
indicating how badly the food has
gone off. The innovation caused a
media storm, with suggestions that
the technology could significantly
cut back on unnecessary food
waste.
Over in Australia, smart labels are
being put in place to detect the
ripeness of certain fruits. In some
supermarkets, you can now find
sensor labels that detect a fruit’s
ripeness, in combination with
a plastic clamshell pack. Now
available in Woolworths and Coles
supermarkets, the packaging
captures the aroma of the fruit, and
the label then reacts with them to
change colour from red to yellow,
illustrating its ripeness levels.
It could also be argued that the
dependence on a plastic clamshell
VEGAN
ICECREAM
New Zealand vegans are
celebrating the launch in this
country of Magnum’s vegan
icecream next month. Using
the highest quality plant-based
ingredients, the icecream is
certified by the Vegan Association,
with cocoa beans selected from
Rainforest Alliance Certified farms
and icecream made with pea
protein. Following successful
launches in Sweden and Finland,
the dairy-free range will be
launched in New Zealand in two
flavours…Classic and Almond.
PLEASE
TALK TO
THE US
New Zealand leaders must
now do everything possible to
bring the US back into the TPP,
National’s foreign affairs and trade
spokesperson Todd McClay says.
“The US is our largest beef and
wine market, and our second
largest dairy market. It is also the
world’s largest consumer market.
For the good of our exporters,
the Labour-NZ First Government
needs to pull out all the stops
to entice the US back to the
TPP agreement they inherited,”
he says. “The re-entry of the
US would be welcome news to
New Zealand businesses and
consumers…breaking down
barriers to trade helps New
Zealand to grow its economy,
create more jobs, deliver higher
incomes and provide more choices
to consumers.”
44 FEBRUARY 2019