From niche players such as Fish + People to large enterprises such as Campbell Soup Co. and Walmart Stores Inc., companies are rushing to meet consumers’ increasing demand to know more about what’s in their food, where it came from, and how it was produced, according to The Wall Street Journal. Hershey Co.’s new “smart labels” are putting more nutrition information on packages and eventually could showcase where it buys its ingredients. Kellogg Co. and General Mills Inc. now feature on their websites, names and profiles of farmers who grow wheat and oats for their cereals.
Walmart’s Sam’s Club unit recently began putting codes on produce packages that smartphone-wielding shoppers can scan to learn where, how and by whom the food was grown.
Fish + People Inc. has been posting on its website the names and photos of the boat captains that caught fish for its new Fishpeople-brand packaged seafood meals and frozen filets over the past three years. Many shoppers are hooked.
The company put special codes on its packages that, when typed into its website, provide information on how each ingredient is produced, and the people involved. Some Fishpeople product packages, which are sold at 7,500 retail locations nationally, now display photos of the captain and the vessel that caught the fish.
“What (shoppers are) most interested in is place and people,” said Fish + People Chief Executive Duncan Berry.
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