News

Clean label for marketeers

25 Apr 2018

The drive towards clean labels has led many food makers to reformulate with ingredients that are considered easier to understand, but some have taken a different route, preferring to explain the purpose of ingredients to consumers.

Explaining ingredients is an alternative way of looking at what transparency and clean labels really mean, helping to educate consumers about the function, source and safety of existing food ingredients, rather than accepting that a low level of knowledge is unchangeable. Explanatory notes might show up on food packaging, perhaps spelling out that ascorbic acid is another name for vitamin C and that its purpose is to extend shelf life – but this can be done online as well as on-pack.

Digital tools to improve transparency

Although packaging is an obvious place to talk about ingredients, consumers are also open to digital information sources, solving the problem of potentially cluttered product labels.

In the United States, younger consumers in particular use apps and QR codes to check specific product information, with 72% saying they are “somewhat to very likely” to use a QR code in the supermarket, according to a recent study from the Food Marketing Institute. Unfortunately there is little information about European use of such information, but research from Label Insight has found nearly two-thirds of U.S. consumers would switch brands if they found one with ingredients they understood better. However, if manufacturers provide easy-to-understand definitions for the ingredients in their products, 84% of those surveyed said they would have more trust in food companies.

Beyond clean label concerns

Providing information, rather than reformulating, also helps address consumers’ other concerns. Although many shoppers say they want more natural foods and beverages, they may have assumptions about other attributes, such as food safety, long shelf life and low price. It is possible that removing an ingredient could affect these other characteristics – and that they may be more important to consumers than a short ingredient list.

Manufacturers have been helped by the increasing number of ingredient suppliers that are taking note of consumer desire for greater transparency. Gelnex Gelatins highlights its supply chain transparency as a differentiating factor in the gelatine industry, for example. And flavour and fragrance firm Symrise emphasises the importance of sustainable raw ingredient sourcing as a way to help manufacturers meet demand for transparency and clean labels.

Of course there are some aspects of the clean label trend that no amount of explanation will override, and the drive toward more natural, easy-to-understand ingredients is about more than comprehension alone. However, if an existing ingredient fits with broader food trends, engaging with consumers could be a way to address concerns without having to find a substitute.