e is inadequate to the job at hand. Data is usually printed on the pack, but consumers increasingly want to read it online, or with a smartphone app such as one that measures calories. Retailers want data that can be scanned for tasks such as quickly locating faulty goods for recall or products that have almost reached their expiry dates for markdowns. This could mean a costly upheaval for retailers and brands to change packaging and invest in new systems and scanners, but it could also bring benefits as more data helps them manage the flow of goods better. GS1, the non-profit organisation that assigns the unique numbers in barcodes, has developed a double-layered barcode it calls the “data bar”, which can carry some extra details such as expiry date, quantity, batch or lot number. That has allowed German retailer Metro to launch PRO Trace, a smartphone app that shows, for example, that a fillet of salmon on sale at a store in Berlin on August 25 was caught at the Bremnes Seashore fish farm off the coast of Norway on August 17 and processed in Germany on August 21. Other retailers are also opening up, often supplementing the barcode with a pixilated square known as a quick response (QR) code. It can store dozens more data points and can be scanned by a smartphone camera to lead to a web page, but it can still not be read by the majority of store scanners. Such tools are likely to fuel demands for more transparency. A GS1 survey found consumers are most interested in nutritional and ingredient information, details on allergens, organic certification, environmental impact and ethical standards. Making such a wealth of data accessible via codes that can be scanned is only part of the problem. A bigger challenge is gathering, storing and standardising the information in the first place. The Consumer Goods Forum, a global network of some 400 retailers and manufacturers from 70 countries, is coordinating efforts to harmonise product data and labelling. Malcolm Bowden, president of global solutions at GS1, predicts agreement could come quickest, within a year, on sharing nutrition data as there are already broadly accepted standards, and calorie and allergen apps are proliferating. But making such a wealth of data available will sound the death knell for the barcode. Only a QR code can carry that much information without taking up too much space on packaging. Longer term, more products could carry wireless tags such as the RFID labels that are being widely rolled out across the fashion industry. These tiny tags, which can be embedded in an object and, unlike a barcode or QR code, do not need to be within the line of the sight of a reader, were long too expensive for everyday goods but their price is falling fast. Bowden predicts different systems will probably have to coexist for the next decade or so as retailers and logistics providers gradually upgrade their scanning systems. “I am convinced we will have a day where pretty much all information about all products will be available to all consumers,” he says.