Australian food and beverage businesses beware: a food app “freight train” is on the way, according to an international ingredients expert.
The next generation of apps will empower consumers to analyse their ingredients in new ways, and food companies should embrace cleaner and clearer labelling in preparation, according Per Sommer, the business development director, natural colours at Chr. Hansen.
Sommer, who is visiting Australia from Denmark, told a gathering of food and beverage industry professionals that while apps like GS1's GoScan and Bupa's FoodSwitch can analyse and compare individual products, the next generation of apps being rolled out in the US can compare an entire category in-store, which consumers can then filter according to their preferences.
A third generation of apps will take this to the next level, Sommer said. These will be based on a single database containing the ingredient details of every available food and beverage product. Multiple apps developers will be able to buy access to the data, and customise apps to suit different types of consumers.
This type of general product database already exists in the US, according to Sommer. It took three months to compile and would take only weeks to create in Australia. This data would potentially enable consumers to identify every food ingredient in a product, and click through to a Wikipedia description of the pros and cons.
Sommer says the cleaner and clearer labelling trend is already underway, but the next generation of apps would add more pressure. “You will be hit by a freight train if you don't change.”
Sommer also predicted that the colour claim to emerge in the future, which is already being used on US new product launches, will be “colours from natural sources”, rather than “free of artificial colours”.
Sommer applauded Australian company Morlife Junior for its clean labels. Morlife uses fruit and vegetable extracts including carrot, pumpkin and spirulina in its confectionery products.
Massel International also displays clean labels in its gravy granules product, using ingredients such as 'caramelised sugar', instead of colours with additive numbers, according to Chr. Hansen.
