GS1 GoScan app will help Australian consumers make better choices

Posted by AFN Staff Writers on 14th March 2013

Barcode company GS1 is about to launch its GoScan app.

With the support of a range of food industry partners – including the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC), major supermarkets and food manufacturers – the new GS1 GoScan iPhone application will be launched in Sydney next week.

GS1 says the GoScan iPhone application will allow consumers to rapidly and easily access trusted product information from their mobile phone, whether they are at home, at a store or ‘on-the-go’. App users will be able to scan the barcode of a product and immediately see a huge range of information about that product on their phone.

“The integrity and reliability of the GS1 GoScan data is unsurpassed, as it is authorised and supplied to GS1 Australia by the brand owners of the vast range of food and liquor products sold in Australia,” says the Company’s website.

Users of the app will be able to personalise its settings to ensure they are receiving information relevant to any allergies and dietary or lifestyle requirements they might have.

“GS1 Australia has gone to extreme lengths in working with key groups, including Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia, to produce a tool that shares accurate information on food ingredient content and food allergy,” said Maria Said, CEO Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia.

The development of such an app was a recommendation of the Senate Inquiry into the Food Processing Sector chaired by Tasmanian Senator Richard Colbeck last year.

“This is a very welcome move. The new app creates the platform to provide much more information to consumers with more than 8,000 products already listed,” Senator Colbeck said.

“One of the issues regularly raised during debates has been the space available on packaging to provide information. This application has the capacity to deal with some of those ‘real estate’ issues and present additional information in a more accessible format,” said Senator Colbeck.

“Another powerful feature is the capacity for consumers to send requests to manufacturers for them to list their products on the app database, if they have not already done so, or for more detailed information. Customer feedback can directly drive the provision of information,” he added.

The app has a range of features including personalised alerts for allergen, dietary and lifestyle requirements; country of origin information; detailed definitions and additional information on genetically modified (GM) foods and irradiation; access to brand-owner promotions and competitions; links to brand-owners’ websites and social media pages; and voiceover support for people with visual impairment.

The new app comes as research from consumer research organisation Nielsen shows that more and more Australians are using their mobile devices to access information on the internet, with nearly 40 per cent of Australians accessing the internet on their mobile phones and 19 per cent on tablet devices.