Due to frequently changing food and safety regulations in the US, keeping manufacturers' labelling compliant can often be difficult
Despite complying with ingredient listings and nutrition facts, Ferrero was ordered to pay $4 for every jar of Nutella bought in California since August 2009
Consumers don’t want customisable labels anymore but real information. Will Moffitt speaks to Dan Muenzer, president of the international label body TLMI, to understand more about the technology trends, marketing opportunities and upcoming compliance conditions impacting labelling.
Some products are easily discernible as not-a-health food through simple brand recognition, but even those in doubt can check labels. Nutella, for example, though loved by many, has some eyebrow-raising numbers.
Based on the label at the time of print, there is approximately 210 grams of sugar in a 13-ounce tub, while the second-most used ingredient is fatty palm oil.
In 2012, however, Athena Hohenberg was convinced that the chocolate and hazelnut spread was part of a balanced diet, regularly serving it to her four-year-old daughter.
After a close friend informed her otherwise, Hohenberg filed a lawsuit against Ferrero in California the same year, claiming that the representations made by Ferrero in labelling Nutella “an example of a tasty yet balanced breakfast” were deliberately misleading.
Despite complying with ingredient listings and nutrition facts, Ferrero was ordered to pay $4 for every jar of Nutella bought in California since August 2009, or bought anywhere else in the US since January 2008. The company also agreed to change its marketing campaign, clearly state fat and sugar content on the front of the jar, and amend the company website.
For Dan Muenzer, president of international labelling body TLMI, the Ferrero case remains a cautionary tale for brands and manufacturers. This is the case even seven years on, as product labels are now increasingly exposed to greater scrutiny by consumers, and because government regulations have become more stringent.
“It is getting so difficult, and there are so many entities getting involved now,” Muenzer explains, “whether it’s regulatory bodies, governmental groups or health and safety organisations.
“And the label manufacturer is quickly becoming an information source to help their customers navigate that landscape. It’s a tricky proposition that comes with a lot of responsibility.”
Consumers’ interest in transparency increasing the significance of labelling
It’s an industry that Muenzer has seen steadily develop since 1994 when he began working for Spear, the pressure-sensitive labelling supplier. There, he witnessed the beginnings of digital print, a technology that has since enabled manufacturers to produce labels on shorter runs with a greater range of designs.
“In 1999, we built our first facility in Wales of all places. And then by 2003 we had built a greenfield site in South Africa and the market just exploded,” he says.
“At the time, brand-owners were converting to pressure-sensitive labels for differentiation and shelf appeal.
“Ultimately the Heinekens and Anheuser-Buschs of this world converted because of the lower total-applied cost for graphic design. That was when it really arrived.”
Since then, the global label market has seen steady growth and is set to hit $44.8bn in 2021, according to market researcher Smithers Pira. Pressure-sensitive remains a dominant segment, accounting for roughly 58% of the global market in 2017, and is set to increase progressively over the next five years.
Such increases have largely been driven by a growing focus on source reduction and sustainability in packaging more generally, burgeoning consumer demand for convenience food and the growing footprint of large retail chains.
Naturally, such trends have been supported by the relatively low cost at which labelling can be replaced or altered, and the continued need for barcodes and other secondary applications that meet a growing raft of food safety and pharmaceutical compliance issues.
Perhaps most important are changing attitudes among consumers who now place greater scrutiny on the products they buy. They are becoming increasingly savvy in their ability to flush out meaningful information from labels, cautious of gimmicky food and beverage marketing ploys.
“Consumers are just buying things differently now and they want a trustworthy, transparent relationship with brands,” Muenzer says. “Equally, they don’t want to be bombarded with information, and there’s a much greater emphasis on providing clear, easy-to-follow ingredient listings.”
How technology is being used in the labelling sector
Technology and smart labelling are now taking these interactions a step further, providing the public with ready access to detailed product information at the touch of a button. Meanwhile, companies benefit from traceable information, enabling them to monitor a product from conception to the shelf.
With advances in radio-frequency identification labels (RFID) and falling costs – an RFID tag was priced at about $1 in 2003, and is roughly 10c today – items are being tracked across the supply chain, ensuring they remain secure, while tags automatically update stock and inventory databases.
Meanwhile, growing sales of biologics and speciality drugs that require thermal-sensitive packaging are promoting the use of smart labels equipped with temperature-control functions. Alongside this is the growing realm of near-field communications (NFC), a technology that enables brands to create smarter products that communicate with consumers through tags designed to transmit short strings of information to smartphones.
“NFC is the modern-day RFID,” Muenzer says. “It works in a similar way to a QR code, but has more sophisticated capabilities.
“Increasingly brands are using it to engage with consumers, to send them interactive messages and offers that can be tailored specifically to them, based on their location, the time of day and current events. It’s an entirely different level of engagement.”
These capabilities have been most readily embraced by alcohol companies, with Diageo piloting the trend in 2015, partnering with Thin Film Electronics – the company behind Apple Pay technology – to create a Johnnie Walker ‘smart bottle’. The concept comprised a 70-centilitre glass package that hid an NFC sensor in its neck collar, sending cocktail recipes and special offers directly to customers.
Since then a growing number of alcohol companies have experimented with the technology, including Spanish winemaker Barbadillo, which created a Versos 1891 smart bottle, and Pernod Ricard, which launched 45,000 ‘smart Malibu bottles’ in UK-based Tesco stores in 2016.
For Muenzer, it’s an opportunity to launch products that can target consumers in the retail space, but then follow them home to the drinks cabinet, creating the potential for further digital engagement while tracking purchasing habits.
“Fundamentally, it means companies can push different products, promote seasonal offers and send personalised reminders like ‘hey, do you remember where you were when you bought this bottle two years ago?’” he says. “It’s an entirely different way to interact with consumers.”
While NFC remains a niche and expensive segment of the market rather than a broader marketing trend, for Muenzer, these kinds of advancements demonstrate a new way of looking at labelling. He believes the philosophy could see the label itself as part of a much bigger branding message.
“For me there is no question that the label industry has outgrown being a one-dimensional informational vehicle,” Muenzer says. “Whereas, once upon a time, the label was just an afterthought, these days it’s something people think about very early on. It’s becoming a crucial part of the branding message and, as smarter technology increases, it can become an effective way to communicate with customers.”
Regulatory compliance and the labelling sector
While the technicians continue their work, most label manufacturers are concerning themselves with the here and now, working to maintain high standards of production with short turnaround times, while complying with stricter governmental regulations.
In the US, this comes in the form of new labelling requirements implemented by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which came into force in January 2020. These new laws involve the implementation of more specific nutritional labelling, including declarations of calories, sugars, daily reference values, percentage daily values, as well as a specific format on how to display the information.
According to the FDA the aim is to provide consumers with more transparent information, enabling them to make better nutritional decisions. As the leading association for the label and packaging industry in North America, TLMI is working as an intermediary between regulatory agencies and label manufacturers.
“In the US, there are 2,500 label printers, so rather than having 2,500 people trying to figure out what the FDA wants, we’re deciphering the regulations and sharing them in a vernacular that label printers understand,” Muenzer says. “It’s a massive undertaking, and it’s something that we haven’t done before, so our organisation is changing out of necessity.”
Given the unique structure of the US political system, however, where each state can impose its own labelling requirements and food safety laws, advising manufacturers on which rules to follow can be tricky.
“We’re sending updates to our members on the regulatory changes and how they will impact them, but I’d be lying if I said we were covering everything,” Muenzer says. “We’re following as much as we can, but in the US, every state can control and ask for different things.
“California, for instance, tends to drive a lot of labelling and packaging decisions because they are far stricter and have far more requirements than the rest of the country.”
While these quandaries might be inconvenient for some, not all manufacturers have to work as speedily as others. Those with less than $10m in annual food sales have until January 2021 to comply, while suppliers of single-ingredient sugars such as honey and maple syrup have until 1 July 2021 to make the changes.
Fundamentally, as Muenzer says, increasingly stringent regulations only serve to show the growing importance of the labelling industry and its role in enabling consumers to make healthier, more informed decisions. “There’s absolutely no question that it’s an opportunity and a problem. But ultimately, the more information that is required, the more important the label becomes,” he concludes.
For now, the labelling industry looks set to grow at a steady annual pace – 5.4% globally according to market leader Smithers Pira – with rising demands for convenience food, the growing footprint of large retail chains, more health-savvy consumers, and requirements to provide more nutritional information keeping it on course.
In many ways, new consumer attitudes are forcing brands and label manufacturers to look at labels the old-fashioned way, making them clear and transparent sources of information that are free of marketing jargon.
Alongside this, the growing potential of smart labelling technology is providing novel ways of tracking products and engaging consumers, forcing brands to consider labels as part of a broader marketing strategy, and thinking about them at the beginning of product design rather than only at the very end.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2019 edition of Converting Today. The full issue can be viewed here.