Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil Brands Launch 'Smart Labels'

Summary

Italian olive oil pro­duc­ers are launch­ing bot­tles with ​“smart labels” that allow con­sumers to track the pro­duc­tion chain with a tap of their NFC-enabled smart­phones. The NFC tech­nol­ogy aims to increase prod­uct trace­abil­ity and authen­tic­ity while pro­vid­ing con­sumers with infor­ma­tion and feed­back oppor­tu­ni­ties.

Bottles with a new ​“smart label” will soon be released allow­ing con­sumers to check all steps of the oil’s pro­duc­tion chain with a sim­ple tap of their NFC-enabled smart­phones.

The award-win­ning iOlive app inte­grates with the NFC SpeedTap™ tags ​“to enable prod­uct authen­ti­ca­tion, enhance con­sumer engage­ment, and fuel online sales,” said the founder of iOlive, Pietro Barachini

Thinfilm Electronics ASA, a lead­ing com­pany in the devel­op­ment and com­mer­cial­iza­tion of printed elec­tron­ics and smart sys­tems, decided to test the NFC tech­nol­ogy in the pack­ag­ing of extra vir­gin olive oil.

“Near Field Communication is proved to be very effec­tive in dif­fer­ent areas, and the main goal of this new pro­ce­dure, is to con­tinue to increase secu­rity on prod­uct trace­abil­ity,” Barachini said.

High-qual­i­tyex­tra vir­gin olive oil pro­duc­ers from Tuscany includ­ing Buonamici, La Ranocchiaia and Il Cavallino, and the olive nurs­ery Pesciatina Horticultural Company SPO will join the project in the first test­ing phase.

The new tool can be use­ful to fight frauds, since every chip is uniquely num­bered and impos­si­ble to clone. ​“During the period of har­vest and pro­duc­tion, com­pa­nies will cer­tify each step of the cre­ation of their extra vir­gin olive oil, and data of each bot­tle will be stored and pub­lished on a web page which refers to the related chip,” Barachini spec­i­fied.

With a sim­ple tap of their smart­phone, con­sumers will have all the guar­an­tees with regard to the com­pany, the pro­duc­tion chain and the declared char­ac­ter­is­tics of prod­ucts.

The small and flex­i­ble device is set­tled in the product’s pack­ag­ing and, when it is tapped, it com­mu­ni­cates with the cloud, enabling pro­duc­ers to con­nect with their cus­tomers and instantly fur­nish authen­ti­ca­tion mes­sag­ing and prod­uct infor­ma­tion.

NFC tech­nol­ogy, which is cur­rently avail­able only with Android oper­at­ing sys­tem, works in ​‘prox­im­ity’ of the device, with­out the need to launch an app. ​“The label inter­acts with your smart­phone, and the bot­tle becomes inter­ac­tive,” Barachini said.

Their next project is to add an app that con­sumers can use to give feed­back and con­tribute in terms of an assess­ment of the prod­uct. The man­u­fac­tur­ers will be able not only to con­trol the prove­nance of their EVOO, but also receive the opin­ions of cus­tomers.

“Consumers’ views are fun­da­men­tal to improve qual­ity,” Barachini added. ​“Heading in the direc­tion of a trans­par­ent mar­ket sys­tem, we want to pro­mote a ​‘cir­cu­lar chain’ in which con­sumers, closely linked to pro­duc­ers, proces­sors and con­trol bod­ies, finally get the true value they deserve.”

• Thinfilm


• NFC World


• Securing Industry