Addressing counterfeit issues, providing true traceability
Globally, there are widely reported counterfeit issues and fraudulent behaviour in the early nutrition segment. As a consequence, the demand for assurance of authenticity, traceability and transparency are crucial considerations underpinning a consumer’s choice and access to safe products. Parallel to this is the consumer concern around off-shore supply chains and a brand’s ability to have sight of every event, further emphasizing the case for traceability.
GS1 Digital Link enhances provenance and authenticity story
With market leadership in brand protection, data intelligence and traceability, Trust Codes was well-placed to help Organic Infant Milk brand Nutura Organic implement a solution fit for purpose. Trust Codes have worked with Nutura Organic to implement GS1 Digital Link to provide a digital product license plate to each and every tin, underpinned with GS1 global standards. This provides verification of authenticity to consumers, with increased data coherency, interoperability, and greater visibility and transparency of their products and the supply chains they arrived on.
GS1 Digital Link increases the visibility in the supply chain. In the unlikely event of a recall, the ability to track and identify affected products is enhanced with the Trust Codes unique digital identifier encapsulated in the GS1 Digital Link QR code.
Technical expertise: Trust Codes
Nutura Organic approached Trust Codes because of their leading position in the market when it comes to brand protection capability and technical expertise. Trust Codes uses advanced machine learning to counteract counterfeiters and catch those who copy codes or content online.
Based on a unique digital identity for each item (a digital product licence plate), the GS1 Digital Link QR code containing the Trust Codes cryptographically secure token enables transparency and traceability through a product’s journey to the consumer and through its lifecycle.
Nutura Organic Australia and the early nutrition market
Nutura Organic is a Melbourne-based brand, producing early nutrition products. Their point of difference is their exclusive use of Australian certified organic milk. Locally, they currently supply to Priceline and Woolworths. Their export market is large, mainly China, Macau and Malaysia.
The early nutrition market is tightly regulated and has high consumer expectations of authenticity and trust, as part of brand choice.
“We are very excited to be one of the first brands to incorporate the GS1 digital link within that traceability system in the southern hemisphere,” says Ben Lovitt, head of marketing
at Nutura Organic. “In a category dominated by the importance of safety and food security for both consumers and retail partners, traceability and demand for anti-counterfeit mechanisms will only continue to grow, so this has been an excellent project to be involved with
Coupled with the Trust Codes global cloud platform, Nutura Organic can deliver contextual experiences to consumers wherever they are located, all from the one unique QR code printed on every item they produce.
The Trust Codes technology leverages GS1 global standards as a foundation, layering anti-counterfeit technology to provide the best possible digital brand protection. Trust Codes has been recognised globally for their GS1 Digital Link initiatives and long-standing work with GS1 global traceability standards.
Market-leading brand protection and consumer engagement
Trust Codes helped Nutura Organic implement their brand protection and consumer engagement objectives with an innovative and market-leading solution.
Having the ability to layer on the GS1 Digital Link functionality with the Trust Codes platform offered a leading position in the market, enabling a plethora of data to be associated with the unique QR code.
The traditional 1D barcode contains a limited numeric identifier; but leveraging the Trust Codes solution with GS1 Digital Link enabled them to enhance their provenance and authenticity story with participants across the supply chain. With the ability to digitally carry more data and content, Nutura Organic can provide different data to different partners along the supply chain, and more educational information is available for consumers.
In-line laser marking saves time
In-line laser marking of the Nutura Organic canned products without impacting throughput was critical to the success of this project. A compressed unique Trust Codes GS1 Digital Link QR code was lasered onto the blue dot on the base of every can, which includes the GTIN and unique digital identity. With the Trust Codes GS1 resolver providing secure access to all other relevant data and identifiers and associated data.
This can be used in the event that there is a need for quality investigation or potential product recalls.
The Trust Codes team also worked alongside Nutura Organic to deliver a world leading contextual User Experience (UX) to their consumers, to not only validate the authenticity of their product but to introduce consumers to their “village” of experts to further build trust with those purchasing their products. They also integrated with the Australian Made Campaign to digitally carry The Australian Made logo to the offshore consumers in export markets.
The importance of traceability, transparency and a data-driven story
There is now an expectation from consumers that brands not only protect their products but enable traceability, transparency and a data-driven story, unleashing further data to business partners and consumers than traditionally possible.
Traceability and brand protection is no longer a “nice to have” but a requirement from consumers to mitigate brand hesitancy. Using the Trust Codes solution can also enable a direct line of engagement to their consumers unleashing a range of information that consumers want to see. Including authenticity messaging, brand values, sustainability efforts, production systems and loyalty programs.