In the next six months, Norgesgruppen will launch an alternative to the well-known bar code, according to reports Nation.
Together with GS1 Norway, Norgesgruppen has worked for a long time to obtain information about the best before date in the bar code on products. This will now be replaced by what are called 2D icons in stores.
– Reducing food waste in the entire value chain is the main point of this transformation, Norgsgruppen’s Sustainability Manager, Signi Bonkhult Satir, tells the newspaper.
The project will eventually also include manufacturers such as Tine, Nortura, and Bama.
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Norgesgruppen previously tested the new code in a pilot project in 2019. There they experimented with barcodes spanning 14 of their own brands. The result was a reduction in food waste by 10 to 15 percent, in Kroner and Urey.
Norgesgruppen aren’t the only ones testing alternative barcodes. Australian supermarket chain Woolworths has also experimented with two-dimensional codes, also in collaboration with GS1.
According to GS1 Norway, the use of 2D icons has been adopted in China with great success. By the end of 2023, it is expected that 80 percent of all companies in the food industry in Zhejiang Province will adopt two-dimensional codes on their goods.
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2D barcode
The new barcode is called a 2D barcode and can contain much more information than regular barcodes. In addition to identifying the item, the two-dimensional codes can say something about an expiration date, country of origin, etc., he writes. GS1 on its website.
The codes are shaped like squares or rectangles, and contain many dots, not unlike a QR code.
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