Extended product data for Woolworths and Metcash private label goods and brands from Nestlé Australia will be available available to consumers via mobile devices via the new GS1 GoScan mobile application later this year.
The launch of the new service, which will provide full and verified product data, including health and nutritional information, follows a joint project between the grocery and retail giants and product data interchange standards setter GS1.
It's understood retailer Coles is also evaluating joining the service, as well as a number of other food companies, including the likes of Simplot, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Kelloggs and Sanitarium.
Due to go live late this year, the GoScan app will offer consumers access to product data at present contained in data banks across the world via their mobile devices such as iPhones or iPads.
It will incorporate GS1's Global Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN), which enables companies to connect and communicate with their trading partners and improve the accuracy and efficiency of their collaboration.
It thus extends to consumers data that has been available on a business-to-business basis through GS1 for almost a decade.
The data to be made available over the mobile devices, simply by scanning a product's barcode, includes nutritional and ingredient information, allergen declarations and other consumer advice, dietary information and other important product information.
The chief operating officer at GS1 Australia, Mark Fuller, said the app was a world first for GS1 using GDSN for the benefit of consumers.
“To date, efforts in this space have been only pilots. Our project with Nestlé Australia is a significant milestone that demonstrates how advanced the GS1 GDS system is and how it can work at its best to enable us to advance and deliver trusted data to consumers,” Fuller said.
Fuller said that at launch the service would concentrate mostly on health, nutritional and pricing information. It will also collaborate with organisations such as the Australian Heart Foundation to provide timely alerts and notifications of product ingredients that could prove a health risk to consumers.
He said it was also planned further down the track to contain sustainability information relating to the actual packaging used in the products.
Fuller said Nestlé Australia had been part of the GS1 GoScan project from the start of development, assisting GS1 Australia with the development of the application alongside industry associations, national health organisations, universities, major retailers, and other local and global food manufacturers.
“It’s a huge accomplishment to see our product data appear on the GS1 GoScan app. It adds a new dimension to how we communicate with consumers and ensure they always have the most accurate and up-to-date information at their fingertips,” Nestlé Australia's B2B and supply chain technology manager, Mandeep Sodhi, said.
“Because we are a global company and our product information is held in various databanks around the world, the process was more complex.”
Sodhi said working with GS1 Australia on the project enabled the company to further realise the benefits data synchronisation could bring to the organisation and to the consumer.
“With so many elements involved, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve this result without the GS1 GDS standards, the support from 1SYNC and the dedicated work of the Nestlé, Nutribank and GS1 teams in Australia, and the Nestlé head office in Switzerland,” he said.
The Nestlé Australia’s product data is managed and maintained in SAP, a global German data management company, and Nutribank.
Nutribank is an Australian database designed to assist the organisation manage detailed product composition and formulation data, such as ingredient lists, nutritional information, allergen declarations and other key product data.
The GS1 GoScan app will enable consumers to access product information by scanning barcodes via smartphones or portable devices.
