The Twenty Years Ahead is characterized by an electromagnetic dictatorship, 5G, which, despite ourselves, will accelerate the paths of interaction between humans and machines, under the auspices of the so-called IoT(Internet of Things). Still, however, we find ourselves having to consult labels overflowing with news in various languages in order to choose a food product on the shelf. What prospects for alternative information tools to the physical label?
Alternative information tools, the regulatory prerequisites
The European legislature of the past decade considered, in the Food Information Regulation, the assumption that operators intended to make use of innovative information tools. A kind of ‘talking label’ was then hypothesized that could interact with the consumer, without forcing them to consult redundant labels of numbers and wording in various idioms. (1)
‘Food information is defined as information concerning a food and made available to the final consumer by means of a label, other accompanying materials or any other means, including tools of modern technology or verbal communication‘ (EU reg. 1169/11, Article 2.2.a)
Alternative means of information could have allowed the responsible operator, even, to omit some mandatory information from the labels. Provided, however, that they were easily and immediately accessible to all consumers, regardless of their availability of smartphones or other devices. Most importantly, provided that the European Commission would adopt the rules implementing this provision.
Alternative information tools, the European Commission’s lethargy
‘In order to ensure that consumers may benefit from different means of provision of mandatory food information best suited to certain mandatory particulars, provided that the same level of information is ensured through packaging or labeling, the Commission, taking into account the evidence of uniform consumer understanding and the wide use of such means by consumers, (…) may establish criteria to which the possibility of expressing certain mandatory particulars by means other than on the packaging or labeling is subject’ (EU reg. 1169/11, Article 12.3)
The European Commission was therefore given of the power to adopt implementing acts on how to apply the above criteria, ‘In order to express one or more specific data through means other than those on the packaging or label.’ (2) But officials in Brussels continue to sleep. Hibernation is now almost a decade old, on this as on other even more important issues pertaining to the implementation of the Food Information Regulation. One among all, the ingredient list and nutrition declaration on the label of alcoholic beverages. (3)
The solution at hand
A global standard of consumer information on food products, on closer inspection, can be developed on the basis of the Global Standard Immagino, developed by GS1-Italy (formerly Indicod ECR). Immagino collects a wide range of data and news about every on-shelf reference in modern distribution in Italy. It has been applied to B2B(business-to-business) information for years to optimize order and inventory management. (4) As well as forming the basis for the compilation of an electronic catalog always based on global standards.
Therefore, the language is already defined, recognizable and inter-operational (i.e., readable by the management and IT systems in use by the large-scale retail trade, GDO). The core of basic information, the mandatory information, can, if anything, be made available with a more distinctly consumer friendly interface. Therefore, it is only a matter of equipping retail establishments with barcode or QR code scanners so that they can be read by those without smartphones. A solution at your fingertips without even a click, which has been adopted by the Ikea group for at least a decade now, to enable reading the prices of small, high-rotation items.
Physical and digital label
The product packaging, the physical label can come reserved to house only those pieces of information that are essential to the safe selection and consumption of the food. Sales name, quantity, ingredient list and TMC or expiration date, any other relevant health information. (5) Moreover, the European Commission could substantially simplify the provision of some primary news. By exercising the delegation of authority already given to it by the legislature, to introduce uniform symbols and pictograms–to apply throughout the entire internal market–that can replace wording in multiple languages (e.g., weight or volume, best consumed by, etc.).
‘In order to ensure that the consumer benefits from means of presentation of mandatory food information other than words and numbers, and provided that the same level of information guaranteed by words and numbers is ensured, taking into account the evidence of uniform consumer understanding, the Commission may establish (…) the criteria to which the expression of one or more certain specific data through pictograms or symbols instead of words or numbers is subject‘ (EU reg. 1169/11, art. 9.3).
In turn, the digital label can collect the entirety of mandatory news, following an appropriate information standard to ensure its effective transparency and easy understanding. As well as any other information offered on a voluntary basis, including any guarantees that may come from a strictly public and interoperable blockchain system.
Why wait any longer?
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Mandatory label information ‘appears in a language easily understood by consumers in the member states where the food is marketed.’ And moreover, ‘withintheir territory, the member states in which a food is marketed may require that such particulars be given in one or more official languages of the Union.’ Without prejudice ‘tosuch indications appearing in more than one language‘. Cf. reg. EU 1169/11, Article 15(Language requirements)
(2) See reg. EU 1169/11, Article 12(Making available and placement of mandatory food information), paragraph 4
(3) See also https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/etichette/vino-zucchero-svelato
(4) It is thanks to the information gathered through the Immagino standard that the Observatory of the same name, at GS1-Italy, offers its Reports on the Italian modern distribution market free of charge. V. https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/il-carrello-della-spesa-in-italia-osservatorio-immagino-2018
(5) See the previous article https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/etichette/controlli-il-ruolo-dellamministrazione-sanitaria/
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.