The popularity of QR codes has jumped recently with the rapid increase in the number of people using smart phones like the iPhone. The two-dimensional codes, resembling an empty crossword puzzle, are appearing more and more in magazines, newspapers, and other forms of traditional advertising.
With the addition of a free scanning app your phone can be turned into a scanner using the phone’s built-in camera.
Now QR codes are being developed to show consumers how individual food items are being produced.
US consumer analyst Phil Lempert says the shift to the new barcodes is being driven by consumers’ desire to know more about where their food comes from.
“Certain ingredients or GMOs, people want to know, but also it’s going deeper,” he said.
“They way to know whether or not the company that they’re purchasing their food from stands by the standards that they stand by.
“Whether it’s about sustainability, whether it’s contributions to different charities, we want to know just about everything.”
It sure would be handy to be able to wave your phone over food items to perhaps load a short video describing how each item is produced.
Imagine the commercial benefit of being able to place small adverts on items that consumers can view with a wave of their hand!
Listen to Flint Duxfield speak with supermarket analyst Phil Lempert: New barcodes provide further information about how food is produced
Source: ABC Rural
