Three Years in, SmartLabel Provides Consumers Digital Information for Majority of Products in U.S. Grocery Stores

WASHINGTON, December 3, 2018 — The Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Food Marking Institute today marked the third anniversary of the digital transparency tool SmartLabel®, which provides easy and instantaneous access to detailed information from 826 brands on more than 36,000 food, beverage, personal care, household and pet care products. 

"Whether you’re shopping with an allergy or dietary need in mind, SmartLabel® provides consumers the information they want about the products they use every day,” GMA President and CEO Geoff Freeman said. “I’m proud to say we’ve come a long way in three years, with the majority of the average store’s products available on SmartLabel®. The industry proactively created this product and continues to demonstrate its commitment to transparency with the program’s rapid ascent.”

Consumers desire an increasing amount of information about their food, beverage, household and personal care products – and SmartLabel® meets that need. In a survey by Atomik Research*, 75 percent of all shoppers said they would be likely to change their grocery buying habits if they had additional information regarding the product they were purchasing, such as its impact on the environment and explanations about safety and usage. Seventy-one percent of shoppers said they are interested in finding out more about a product they are buying beyond the ingredients listed on the label, like what the ingredients do or why they were included in the product. 

SmartLabel® extends beyond what’s on the package label with even more information, including things such as nutritional information, ingredients, allergens, third-party certifications, social compliance programs, usage instructions, advisories and safe handling instructions and company/brand information. Each product participating in SmartLabel® has a specific landing page containing detailed information on ingredients and other product attributes, and the landing pages are organized in a consistent format and appearance across different brands and products. 

“Our lives are influenced by the digital connections we make and by a desire for deeper engagement with our food - taking pride in what we eat, knowing where it comes from and being able to share how it makes us feel,” said FMI President and CEO Leslie G. Sarasin. “SmartLabel gives shoppers the opportunity to enjoy a closer connection to their food and offers quick access to information that matters to them.”

SmartLabel® will continue to evolve to meet consumer needs, working closely with brands to add thousands of products and relevant attributes and helping consumers obtain the information they need. 

SmartLabel™ was created by GMA and FMI in 2015 as part of the Trading Partner Alliance which works to develop a shared retailer-manufacturer agenda on supply chain efficiency issues, the application of information technology, the adoption of environmentally-friendly business practices and other issues of importance to consumers.

*Survey Methodology: Atomik Research was commissioned to run a general population online survey of 1,002 adults in the United States who do the grocery shopping for their homes, whether independently or shopping for others within the household. The survey, conducted May 3-4, 2018, has a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points with a confidence interval of 95 percent.