Page 66 - Farm and Food Policy Strategies for 2040 Series

It shows, for instance, the ingredients, the nutrition contents, the fact it contains wheat, a
potential allergen, and includes ingredients produced with biotechnology, aka GMOs.

Although the system has limitations — it requires a smartphone and internet access, not always
available to all consumers everywhere — it is the kind of technology many food industry and
policy mavens expect to satisfy the demands of many customers for more information about the
food they eat and how their diets might contribute to better health.

Such a mechanism also gives federal food regulators an
option for prescribing how labels disclose information they
require of food manufacturers and marketers. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers it as one of
several ways companies can comply with a rule requiring
disclosure of bioengineered content in food beginning next
year.

In three years since its launch by the Grocery
Manufacturers Association (GMA) and Food
Marketing Institute (FMI), the SmartLabel® system
employing QR codes has built a database of 826 brands
with more than 36,000 food, beverage, personal care,
household and pet care products. Surveys show
consumers would like to learn more about a product’s
impact on the environment and adherence to social goals
such as sustainability, its sponsors say.

SmartLabel information can be seen A 2014 survey indicated 34% of consumers had read such
on thousands of food items, including codes at least once and its use is increasing year to year.
this bottle of soda and candy bar. Nevertheless, activists argue that the system discriminates
against low-income, elderly and rural Americans who do
not own smartphones, may not be able to afford service or
may not understand how to use QR codes.

While consumers and their interest groups are likely to seek more, not less, information from
manufacturers, industry will be challenged to translate an abundance of information into a format
easily accessible to shoppers — how to include an increasing volume of information on a
“limited supply of real estate.” Individual companies and their trade associations have begun
efforts to do so, and experts anticipate that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will show
renewed interest in developing a uniform, standardized format in the coming years.

If the previous generation’s experience provides a look into the future, it is possible for the
next generation to envision a scheme that allows every product on a shelf to be linked
directly to the farm or factory where it originates and the ingredients and attributes that
make it unique.

Food labeling regulation is believed to have originated in the early 13th century when the king of
England prescribed the ingredients of bread dough. In the United States, modern food regulation
dates from 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln established USDA, which included authorities
that moved to FDA in 1940.

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