French food group Danone has introduced a new tracking service for its baby formula range to offer more transparency about the journey of the products from the farm to store shelves.
The blockchain-powered 'Track & Connect' service uses serialisation and aggregation technology to ensure a safe and secure method for storing data and information about the movement of the products across the supply chain.
A 'Unique' Service
The food giant has also implemented its dual-QR code packaging innovation to create what it calls a 'unique' service.
Baby formula packs will bear two QR codes, generated with the help of its in-house 'global code repository', Danone said.
The repository generates, manages, and validates QR codes before they are printed on packs and scanned by consumers.
It can generate billions of unique and random QR codes, each containing 11 alphanumeric characters.
The products will have one QR code on the outer pack, while the inner code will be printed behind a tamper-resistant seal.
The outer QR code, which provides information about batch and unit numbers, can be scanned before or after purchase.
The inner QR code can only be scanned after the product has been purchased and opened.
After-Sale Support And Services
It enables Danone to offer shoppers customised after-sale support and services such as access to apps and information related to health and nutrition, customer helplines, online e-commerce services, and parenting videos.
On scanning the inner QR code of a pack, it will register it as purchased on Danone's 'global code repository’ and provide a one-off authentication message.
Further scanning of the inner code will trigger an alert that the product has already been opened.
Danone believes that the Track & Connect service will also provide more insights into the buying habits of customers, helping retailers with purchasing and tracking of stocks, advanced forecasting, and personalisation of offers.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
