General Archive

Climate labelling scheme for restaurant menus gains financial support in Sweden

CarbonCloud, a service dedicated to helping the global food industry to lower its carbon footprint has been given a start-up grant by the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre. The grant will allow CarbonCloud to continue to develop its web based service CarbonAte, which helps restaurant managers and chefs to develop and endorse climate smart dishes.

The website calculates the environmental impact of every food ingredient in a given dish, producing a climate label that can then be added onto restaurant menus to give consumers a clear climate calculation for dishes.

UKHospitality says proposed mandatory menu calorie labelling would represent burden for restaurants

The Department of Health and Social Care has asserted that it will move forward on introducing mandatory calorie labels on restaurant, café and takeaway menus to give consumers a clear choice about what they and their families eat, but UKHospitality has voiced concerns about the proposal stating that it would represent a significant burden for businesses, especially small outlets.

Tips for Developing Purposeful Packaging for you Brand

People’s tastes are changing when it comes to packaging, is it recyclable? Does it impact my environmental footprint? Is it sustainable? These factors are what is driving consumers when it comes to looking at products and identifying with brands, and packaging can make a big statement about your company values, the products you sell and your brand, so packaging planning is key to creating the right message.
Creating purposeful packaging is making sure that your packaging does more than just being a container for your product. It is packaging that encompasses extra benefits, more functionality, your values and enhances the consumer experience.

Iceland’s new labelling helps UK consumers avoid plastic packaging

Iceland is one of the first supermarkets to introduce a new labelling system that tells consumers which products have no hidden plastic packaging on them. The new plastic-free ‘trust mark’ was introduced earlier this week and will be prominently displayed on food and drink packaging that does not contain any plastic.

The new initiative was introduced to allow consumers to choose greener alternatives. Iceland and Dutch supermarket Ekoplaza have started using the new labelling system, along with tea bag manufacturer Teapigs, but it hoped that other organisations will follow suit.

First EU joint meeting on nutritional labelling

A joint meeting of European member states and the food industry has taken place this week which could see a more unified approach to nutritional information on the front of food products throughout Europe.
Front-of-pack (FOP) nutritional labelling is a hot topic at the moment as governments look to tackle the obesity problem and consumer confusion when purchasing food and drink. Set up by the European Commission, this meeting is the first in a line of meetings which will be held in the coming months to formulate a report into what it would recommend as regards to labelling rules in the single market.

Irish brewers voice concerns about health warnings on alcohol

Northern Irish brewers and distillers have voiced concerns about the proposed changes to alcohol labelling being debated in the Republic of Ireland, and that if those changes are put into place it could effect the growth of the sector, especially for smaller producers.

Under the Ireland Public Health (Alcohol) Bill, one of the proposed changes would see mandatory health warnings on alcohol labels, with warnings, ingredients and calories taking up to a third of the label.
Colin Neill, Chief Executive of Hospitality Ulster warned the proposed changes could cause “a significant impediment to the growth” especially for smaller producers.

Food portion sizes, misleading labels and obesity numbers still continuing to rise

Food packaging labels should correspond to the serving guidelines given via the GDA and traffic light system. Issues are solely based around people misunderstanding what they’re reading and failing to follow the recommended serving sizes.
People may need to be more aware of food portion sizes and to take in consideration the information they’re being given. Daily guidelines are issued on most, if not all, food packaging in the UK, but how clear are they? Do we know what they mean?

How DataLabel can help your marketing strategy with window stickers

Window stickers are an effective way to advertise your brand and to get your message out there. Now with the advances in printing technology, long gone are the days of big white rectangular stickers seen on cars, shop windows and signs with these being replaced with vibrant promotional stickers of all shapes, sizes and colours.

Windows stickers are available in a range of different styles for a range of different applications such as inside and outside environments, temporary stickers which can be removed easily or permanent stickers that will stand the test of time.