Information is power – on product labels too

In the case of special products many manufacturers advertise their products with its composition – ingredients they have or don’t have. László Kun, head of industrial sales with Bizerba Scales Hungary Kft. informed us that this type of information can be indicated on the product label but it isn’t compulsory. If the manufacturer decides to indicate this kind of information, then certain rules refer to such statements as well. There are two main statement categories: the statement on nutritional composition informs about what the product contains (or not contains) and in what quantity; the health-related statement informs about what the product or any of its ingredients can do. Statements can only refer to the product which is ready for consumption and the information must be easily understandable for the average consumer. Mr Kun’s experience is that such information is generally featured in the product’s graphic design. However, in the case of products manufactured in smaller quantity (e.g. artisan products) this design and marketing capacity isn’t available. Bizerba reacted to the needs of these manufacturers with a special service: printing product labels in colour, with a nice design and at affordable prices, in small quantity. Users can print on these with their Bizerba scales, changing the information on labels in accordance with their needs. Krisztina Vatai, business development director of GS1 Hungary told our magazine that with pre-packaged food products the majority of manufacturers have made the necessary changes in terms of content info on product labels, in order to meet the requirements of the new regulation. Unfortunately problems do occur with food not packaged in advance. One of the reasons for this is that retailers and catering service providers didn’t have enough time to prepare. Ms Vatai revealed to us that retailers and catering service providers have a hard time collecting the necessary data to inform consumers (for instance printed on paper or on touchscreen displays) about product ingredients. Not to mention the fact that suppliers sometimes change the composition of products. Creating a central database for such products may be the solution, where all suppliers could daily update their product composition information if necessary.