Italian food company Barilla has incorporated QR codes on the packaging of ten of its most popular pasta offerings as it seeks to support visually impaired consumers.
The move will see the food giant extending its partnership with Be My Eyes, a platform that provides live audio and visual support for blind and visually impaired consumers.
The company commenced the rollout of the QR codes in October on the boxes of Barilla classic penne, spaghetti, farfalle, rotini, rigatoni, tri-colour rotini, thin spaghetti, fettuccini, angel hair and linguine.
'Widely Accessible To All'
Laura Birk, vice president of human resources at Barilla Americas, commented, "Ensuring our consumers have access to quality resources that allow them to better understand our products is incredibly important.
"Be My Eyes has proven to be a helpful and important resource for pasta shoppers, supporting Barilla's mission to make our products widely accessible to all. We are excited to be on the cutting edge of developments in our industry to increase accessibility for individuals with visual assistance needs."
In 2021, Barilla teamed up with Be My Eyes to introduce a feature that directly connects shoppers with experts in the company through smartphone cameras.
"Every day, thousands of people with visual challenges rely on Be My Eyes to live their lives independently," said Hans Jørgen Wiberg, founder of Be My Eyes.
"Barilla is taking an unprecedented step to support their blind/[visually impaired] customers by adding QR codes to their packaging. No matter the question, Barilla is one scan and click away from providing visual assistance to consumers."
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest packaging news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
