Consumer website could help manufacturers trace ingredients

A website with spin-off benefits that could help processors tighten up on traceability is set to be launched for consumers.

The Food Standards Agency and the Food and Drink Federation have lent their names to the site, http://www.whatsmybrand.co.uk, which is poised to launch in January. In addition the site founder Ian Duncan is in talks with the Department of Health and the British Heart Foundation over the project.

Major manufacturers such as Premier Foods, Cadbury and Tate & Lyle and retailers have already committed to uploading all their product details, down to individual stock-keeping-units (SKUs) on to the on-line database. Registration is free until the site goes live and £60 per year for the trade after that. However, shoppers can use the site for free.

Technical managers, brand managers and marketing managers within the companies are responsible for constantly updating the data. The website keeps a record of when entries were made and who made them.

The site lists a range of information, from potential allergen contamination to typical nutritional values, salt and fat content and additives, such as flavourings and colours. Guideline daily amounts and traffic light nutritional profiles will also be provided.

The aim of the site is primarily to provide a one-stop shop to enable consumers to make clear and informed choices about what they buy.

Shoppers can search for products, for example, that are gluten-free, within certain categories by punching terms into their keyboards and the database will tell them which products are available and where they are sold. They can also search for products by ingredient or country of origin. For example, they could find a product fortified by omega-3.

Consumers can compare products by retailer and cost and can customise search filters to enable them to conduct multiple searches without typing in the same criteria every time.

“We’re not doing this to provide a price comparison, we’re doing this for information,” said site founder Ian Duncan. “But we couldn’t desert the consumer at the point of price, so we have given this as well. It’s an independent site, so you can trust the information because it’s provided by the manufacturer themselves.

Duncan said the site was a great vehicle for manufacturers and retailers to showcase the variety of their portfolios. He therefore hoped that the desire to compete would drive more firms to sign up.

In the future, he said the site could be developed so that it could be accessed via mobile phone or could provide recipe ideas.