Baking & Snack - June 2017 - 116

LABELING AND BARCODING

scan the package and instantly pull up additional product information, giving those who want to know what
ingredients are in the product - and why - access to all
the information they need.
"And remember, not every consumer wants the same
information," Mr. Lowe said. "Some will want to know
details about allergens, including whether a product is
processed in a facility or on a line that also processes an
allergen. SmartLabel provides that information."
Food companies, in turn, are looking for ways to
provide such information via package labels. Bakery
and snack manufacturers have shown strong interest in
SmartLabel to provide ingredient and other information
to consumers, according to Mr. Lowe.
According to GMA numbers, 6,700 products from
216 brands across 26 companies already feature the
SmartLabel to provide detailed information on their
products, with a projection for 34,000 products by the
end of 2017. Participating retailers and CPGs include
several organizations with bakery and snack lines, such
as Ahold USA, Quincy, MA; ConAgra, Chicago; the
Kellogg Company, Battle Creek, MI; King's Hawaiian,
Torrance, CA; Mondelez International, Deerfield, IL;
and Flowers Foods, Thomasville, GA, among others.
Flowers Foods is participating in the SmartLabel
program with three of its major brands: Nature's Own,
Dave's Killer Bread and Alpine Valley. "We believe this
program is an effective way for manufacturers to provide
consumers a better understanding of the ingredients in
the products they purchase," said Sherry Harper, brand
manager, Flowers Foods.
"SmartLabel pages offer easy access to full product information, some of which may not be included
on the packaging because of package size limitations,"
Ms. Harper said. She added that in the few months
SmartLabel has been used on select Flowers brands,
the company has been "pleasantly surprised" at how
many consumers are using the QR code to gain instant
access to information.

Supply meets demand
To meet consumers' interest for more information,
packaging suppliers offer a range of materials and technologies designed to help food companies use their labels as tools.
Joanna Mooberry, marketing and communications
for Mettler-Toledo, said that changes in labeling, driven by consumer demands, regulations and other issues,
are opening the door to innovations. "With consumer
tastes and preferences leaning toward GMO labeling,
vegetarian options and other niche dietary restrictions, we are seeing demand among manufacturers
to better monitor labeling variations that are seen on

116 Baking & Snack June 2017 / www.bakingandsnack.com

The SmartLabel program gives instant access to a wide range of product
information with the scan of a QR code.
GMA

these specific packages," she said. "As such, manufacturers are looking for ways to efficiently monitor and
track labeling variations to ensure products are marked
accordingly."
Among other offerings, Mettler-Toledo provides vision inspection solutions to monitor quality with systems that can inspect packages and labels with graphic
IDs, barcode information and more. "Our vision systems are designed to detect many types of optical
characters, barcodes and variable inkjet printing," Ms.
Mooberry said. The company has an advanced vision
library and suite of tools embedded in its software, including a new dot print tool that can be used to detect
variable inkjet printing.
Ms. Mooberry noted that the systems can be used
with SmartLabels. "We see this as a critically important
tool for consumers to learn more about a particular
product," she said. "We see requests for many inspection types, and SmartLabels are certainly something we
can inspect."
Other trends in label content and usage are fueling
changes in packaging. Dave Fosse, director of marketing, key accounts, Lindar Corp., said the company's
labeling capabilities have increased activity from customers seeking quality, clear labels. "We have experienced lots of activity in clean labeling and eliminating
wrap-around labels to a top and bottom label," he said.

http://www.bakingandsnack.com

Baking & Snack - June 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking & Snack - June 2017