BRANDS, IT’S TIME TO BE TRANSPARENT!

Today’s food packaging must do so much more than telling the ingredients, it has to contain, keep, communicate, attract, educate, get recall and preserve. From necessary details, protection against pollutants, aesthetic appearance and nutritional value, it has to promise clean living.

Talking about today’s food system is totally controlled by the shoppers and now more than ever they have started demanding more from it. Long gone are the days when just a brand name could influence the buyer into buying the product even without looking at the ingredient list. Modern-day consumers are tech-savvy, which gives them access to plenty of information from all over the globe about everything possible. Even when it comes to food, they can research it and choose the healthiest option available. They do so by reading the label, googling ingredients and then making their decisions. The sad thing is these days, many manufacturers have been unable to keep this flow of information up to the mark. The result of which people have started losing trust in new upcoming brands. The only solution to this issue is TRANSPARENCY.

One major problem with current health claims on the packaging is that both too much and too little information confuses and misleads consumers. The information on the front is totally different from the information on the back of the ingredients list. Companies try to get away with terms that are vague such as ‘heart healthy’ and ‘supports your immune system’. Such claims are not even reviewed by the FSS and are confusing to the users. For example, food labelled “Natural” have high fructose corn syrup content which is not very healthy but companies argue that since it is derived from corn, it is healthy. The term “organic” had taken over the world with almost everything claimed as the same. While over the years, people understood the strategy behind companies using these terms, new terms have started to float in the market further confusing the consumers. These days, marketing claims like “free-from”, “100% natural”, “no added preservatives” fuel the market sales. But today, all these claims aren’t all authentic and people have become more critical and practical about their purchases.

The claims that influence perceptions and actually have no link to health and nutritional quality are as follows:

1. Positives added: “high protein”, “probiotics” and “more vitamins”

2. Negatives removed: “nicotine-free”, “sugar-free” and “low salt”

3. No added something: “no added colours”, “no added flavours” and “no pesticides”

4. No removing something: “all-natural”, “homemade”, “fresh” and “straight from our kitchen”.

Changes must be in order! The need of the hour is that brands must say what is inside on the outside. It’s important to label the product right. It becomes the key to avoiding legal issues and creating a trusting bond with your customers.

Confused about how you are going to accomplish this for your brand and its packaging? Let’s get talking!