Suffering shoppers seek clearer ingredient information

Better labelling would improve shopping experience for up to one in five customers says ZBD Displays

ZBD Displays, the retail display innovator, is calling on supermarkets to improve the shopping experience for the estimated 20 per cent [1] of Britons who suffer from food intolerance and allergies.
 
Common reactions to foods such as wheat, dairy products and peanuts mean that increasing numbers of shoppers have to check ingredients very carefully before buying. ZBD believes that displaying this information more clearly alongside essentials such as price and special promotions would improve the overall customer experience significantly.
 
Research [2] undertaken by ZBD found that nutritional data is the most important information customers look for when shopping in a supermarket (28%). With 70 per cent of decisions made at the product itself, the need for clearer labelling is obvious.
 
In contrast to paper labelling, electronic point of purchase (epop) displays can be updated with ingredient and price information from the back office quickly and easily. This would allow consumers to identify ingredients they are unable to eat almost instantly without actually having to handle the product.
 
With so many customers suffering from adverse reactions to certain ingredients, it makes sense for the supermarkets and other retailers to make the weekly shop as easy as possible, explained David Rogers, vice-president of sales and marketing at ZBD Displays.  Better point of purchase labelling allows the customer to easily see exactly what is contained in individual products and avoid any potentially harmful consequences.
 
 Theres the added bonus that if recipes change or food has been somehow contaminated in the manufacturing process, this information can be updated fast, direct to the product with no human intervention, protecting allergy suffers from consuming something that could spark an attack, he added.
 
[1] Source: www.allergyuk.org , the leading medical charity for people with allergy, Intolerance and Chemical Sensitivity.
[2] Research undertaken by GfK NOP.  A nationally representative telephone omnibus survey was carried out amongst 999 respondents across the UK. Fieldwork was carried out 28-30 April 2006.  Weighting was applied to the data to bring it in line with national profiles.