SmartLabel® : A Path to Transparency and Consumer Trust
The idea for SmartLabel® started as the Consumer Information Transparency Initiative (CITI) and was sponsored in 2014 by the Trading Partner Alliance (TPA), a collaborative industry body of stakeholders represented by the Board of Directors for FMI and Grocery Manufacturers Association. One FMI/GMA member, The Hershey Company, working to address transparency for their products, felt this would be better served as an industry-wide initiative and raised the idea for a vote, which passed, and began the SmartLabel initiative.
The SmartLabel kick-off meeting organized over 90 companies and 320 stakeholders into four key working groups including two focused on product attributes, one focused on food products, and the other on non-food and pet products. Groups were charged with building the consumer interface, and identifying technologically how best to operationalize and bring to market. Since then, additional working groups have formed to look at creating a bi-lingual English/Spanish function to the app and improving the consumer experience.
The audience for SmartLabel will reach beyond the original consumer audience. Government regulators, academia, and business partners will be able to conduct research about products used, and consumed, in addition to non-governmental organizations (NGO’s). Ultimately, SmartLabel helps food retailers and manufacturers meet the consumer demand for more food product information and is a mechanism for developing consumer trust in food products and brands.