The New Zealand Food & Grocery Council (NZFGC), GS1 New Zealand, The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) and GS1 Australia have joined forces to roll out SmartFacts®; a groundbreaking new initiative designed to harmonise ‘digital labelling’ across on-shelf food and grocery products in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
With a simple smartphone scan, SmartFacts® will provide consumers with instant access to digital, standardised product information including nutritional details, allergens, and company information; eliminating confusion and helping foster greater transparency and trust in brands.
Background on the initiative and rollout
Digital labelling gives the ability for a consumer to access a wealth of brand-owner managed product and company information by scanning a QR code on-pack to drive consumer engagement, support purchasing decisions and build brands. SmartFacts® is a new initiative to develop industry guidance aimed at harmonising the implementation of digital labelling in Australia and New Zealand to deliver a consistent consumer experience. The initiative follows global standards for QR code with GS1 Digital Link and links directly to the website of the brand owner.
Benefits for consumers
Consumers are seeking more and more detailed information about products, and the traditional route for conveying this information is through physical product packaging. The limited space available on-pack makes this challenging. Moving to a scannable ‘digital label’ opens a world of possibilities. While some producers have been early adopters with consumer QR codes already on pack, currently the information made available on these links varies considerably across brands and products. That’s why SmartFacts® has been developed, providing guidance to producers and brands standardising the key information to present through a digital label and making it easier for consumers to understand and compare product information as they make purchasing decisions. When digital product information is presented in a standardised QR code format, it becomes much easier for consumers to engage with. This consistency can build trust and provide consumer confidence, resulting in long-term brand loyalty.
NZFGC CE Raewyn Bleakley says:
“SmartFacts® represents a positive step forward in empowering consumers with the information they need to make informed choices while also giving producers a powerful tool to communicate transparently and consistently. By embracing standardised digital labelling, we’re not only enhancing trust in the products on shelf but also supporting innovation and efficiency across the food and grocery sector. This collaboration with our Australian counterparts ensures a consistent experience for consumers and businesses across the Tasman.”
Benefits for industry
SmartFacts® presents multiple benefits for industry. It’s based on GS1 Standards using a QR code with GS1 Digital Link, providing confidence that the approach follows global best practice around QR code implementation. Better yet, using a GS1 QR code enables brands to rationalise barcodes on-pack, as a GS1 QR code is both scannable by a consumer’s smartphone, as well as acting as the barcode that ‘beeps’ at point-of-sale, just like a traditional barcode. Being a Trans-Tasman initiative, SmartFacts® gives brands confidence as they deliver product to both New Zealand and Australian markets.
Regulatory Advocacy
SmartFacts® demonstrates to regulators the benefits of digital labelling, given more fulsome information can be provided to the consumer, for example, packaging disposal information. Digital labelling helps streamline compliance and enhances transparency, and through its adoption a more efficient regulatory system can be created —one that works better for both businesses and consumers.
GS1 New Zealand CEO Peter Stevens says:
“Digital labelling has significant benefits for New Zealand consumers and businesses. While there are established regulatory requirements around the information to display on physical packaging, the addition of industry guidance to support digital labelling will help brands navigate the display of digitised product information. We’re proud to support the rollout of SmartFacts® in the New Zealand market and provide brands the confidence required to navigate this space and leverage GS1 Standards.”
SmartFacts® will start rolling out across select FMCG products from the second half of 2025.
For all New Zealand Food and Grocery Council (NZFGC) media enquiries, please contact:
Holly Cotter: +64 21 242 7677 | holly.cotter@fgc.org.nz
For all GS1 New Zealand media enquiries, please contact:
Jonathan O’Grady: +64 27 811 8286 | jonathan.ogrady@gs1nz.org
About the New Zealand Food and Grocery Council
The New Zealand Food & Grocery Council (NZFGC) represents the manufacturers, suppliers, and supporters behind New Zealand’s food, beverage, and grocery brands.
NZFGC members create and supply products that consumers purchase from the supermarket shelves every day, as well as being significant exporters, from the largest companies to emerging start-ups breaking into a highly competitive market, and the companies that support them. Government, retailers and other relevant organisations on matters that affect the industry, and liaises with government departments on food legislation, trade practices, and environmental issues, working where needed with a range of stakeholders, including from the fast-moving consumer goods industry and NGOs. For more information, visit their website.
About GS1 New Zealand
GS1 is a federation of not-for-profit GS1 organisations in 118 countries. Best known for the barcode, GS1 supports more than 2 million user companies and 10 billion transactions every day. The barcode was named in 2016 by the BBC as one of “the 50 things that made the world economy.”
GS1 New Zealand is the local affiliate of the federation and is owned by over 8,000+ New Zealand members and affiliate members across business and government. Governed by private and public sector leaders from organisations such as Health New Zealand, ProPharma, The Mānuka Collective, Woolworths New Zealand, Foodstuffs New Zealand, Mitre 10, Placemakers and Fonterra Farm Source, GS1 NZ uniquely identifies products and parties and verifies core data associated with these parties and products. This provides a source of trusted data to facilitate local and global trade. For more information, visit GS1 New Zealand’s website.
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