In its 2018 green paper, Modernising Consumer Markets, the government committed to ‘harness the power of new technologies for the benefit of consumers’ – a move particularly relevant to improving food information.
After all, the way consumers buy food – and the way they consume information – is changing rapidly. Food information systems need to adapt to keep pace; the recent Food Information Regulations, plus new allergen labelling legislation, only increase this need.
However, as the green paper points out, adding more information does not always empower consumers to make better-informed choices.
Instead, information should be presented in a format that allows consumers to see at a glance how products differ from each other and align with their personal preferences. In particular, the ability for consumers to pre-select for provenance – and therein for British quality-assured food and all its welfare, environmental and sustainability benefits – would be a massive step forward for the UK.
Such a system could offer a shopping list of ranked alternatives for products based on preferences (including price and labelled information such as nutrients, allergens, religion and ethics, in addition to provenance) which consumers could use to shop either online or in selected stores.
Instant online information and easy choices are now expected, especially among younger demographics. Online comparison and switching services – as already exist for utilities, insurance, holiday and broadband – are a useful reference point for the food industry in this regard.
Given the range of products and selling options available, this is of course a challenging proposition.
There are already a number of well-established price apps, such as MySupermarket, which provide price information and comparisons to help the consumer shop around.
In addition, several barcode-based apps help consumers pre-select from a limited range of foods on the basis of health preferences, such as free from allergens, salt or FODMAP. Examples include GS1 Go Scan, FoodSwitch, FoodMaestro, Spoonguru, Yuka, Coeliac UK and the PHE food scanner.
These services offer valuable assistance to certain consumer groups, but none is a one-stop shop. The market for digital food information remains highly fragmented, with consumers forced to consult multiple services to get the full picture on price, provenance, welfare and other product attributes that are important to them.
A rapidly changing market, including the rise of online shopping and food to go, further complicates matters. Foodservice in particular offers little consumer information at present, despite accounting for almost 40% of the market.
It needn’t be this way. We now have the IT capacity to help empower consumers to choose foods through personalised preference and alternative choice systems. Food information is a significant challenge that needs a co-ordinated and independent approach to establish consumer confidence.
We need an independent and collaborative initiative to harness the power of IT for the benefit of food consumers.
Richard Moody is professor of food science and retired from Manchester Metropolitan University
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