That’s the view of grocery think-tank chief executive Joanne Denney-Finch in this exclusive video for FoodManufacture.co.uk filmed at the IGD conference earlier this week.
Denney-Finch encouraged food and drink manufacturers to take advantage of the latest technology that reassures consumers about the origin and ingredients within a food product.
‘Ethical score for food choices’
Examples she used included, The Open University’s intelligent shopping trolley that provides shoppers with an ethical score for their food choices. In addition, a phone app called Buycott could run background checks on manufacturers’ brands to see if they contravened consumers’ personal ethics, she said.
Meanwhile, in science, the latest isotope analysis could detect not only the country but the precise region of a product’s country of origin.
Watch this video to find out about other forms of technology Denney-Finch said could help food and drink firms provide peace of mind to consumers and why, despite being in a recession, being able to trace the full origin of a product was more important than price.
She also said that irrespective of a “few rogues” that breach “really robust systems” the industry should still focus on a revolution in traceability and transparency to help build consumer trust.