Effective Food Chain Traceability Boost Consumers’ Confidence 21 Winners Recognised for Remarkable Efforts in Food Traceability

Effective Food Chain Traceability Boost Consumers’ Confidence

21 Winners Recognised for Remarkable Efforts in Food Traceability

 

Introducing New Barcode Scan@WeChat Function that Enhances Consumer Interaction and Trust

 

Hong Kong (30 August 2017) – GS1 Hong Kong hosted the Food Safety Forum 2017 themed “Food Brand Protection: Increase Consumer Trust” today, gathering more than 300 food industry stakeholders to exchange insights on best practices and strategies on enhancing food safety in Hong Kong. Co-located at the Forum is the Award Presentation Ceremony for Quality Food Traceability Scheme 2017, where 21 companies were recognised for demonstrating excellence in food safety and traceability practices. GS1 Hong Kong also announced the launch of Barcode Scan@WeChat function, empowering brand owners to offer more product information that boost consumer trust.

 

Inaugurating the Forum, Dr. Chui Tak-yi, Under Secretary for Food and Health said, “Hong Kong is a gourmet paradise. A gourmet paradise counts not only on the varieties of food products and choices, but significantly on food safety and quality. Ensuring food safety is one of the top priorities of the HKSARG.”

 

Traceability to Ensure Transparent Food Information

While consumers’ demand for food is growing more sophisticated, transparency of food product information has become the basic expectation for most Hong Kong people. They demand to know what they eat, from product origin to ingredients to production practices. To meet their needs, more food providers have started to focus their efforts on enhanced food visibility, to increase consumers’ confidence in the food purchased.

 

Elaborating on visibility, Ms. Anna Lin, JP, Chief Executive of GS1 Hong Kong indicated that “Standardization provides the foundation of food traceability system by allowing linkage of the flow of product information along the supply chain, and made even possible for this information to be visible to consumers,”  

 

“With more transparent information, consumers would feel safer to consume the food products, hence their trust and loyalty to the brand will grow.” Ms. Lin added.

 

Companies Place High Value on Food Traceability

To recognize the efforts of the companies which commit to food traceability and visibility for consumers, 21 food-related enterprises are being awarded in the Quality Food Traceability Scheme 2017. 7 companies are new to the Scheme, meaning that traceability is of growing importance to both food companies and their customers. (See Appendix for full winner list)

 

Initiated in 2015, the Quality Food Traceability Scheme 2017 is an “enhanced” version which involves two professional audit partners, British Standards Institution (BSI) and Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency (HKQAA). 

 

The Scheme is designed to help local food and food services companies to enhance their track and trace capabilities along the supply chain, and effectively adopt international standards for their food management systems.

 

Participating companies will undergo a structural, all-round assessment based on Global Traceability Standard. It defines a comprehensive set of traceability requirements suitable for local food businesses to achieve full chain traceability. Diamond, Gold and Silver awards are presented to recognised companies based on the audit results.

 

New Barcode Scan@WeChat function

To meet the consumers’ demands for product transparency, GS1 Hong Kong has introduced an innovative barcode scanning function on WeChat, enabling the food brand owners and enterprises to offer a peace of mind for their customers.

 

Mobile users can gain access to the product information, including product image, description and e-commerce platform. It helps uplift consumers’ trust as the product information are provided by the reliable and trusted source from brand owners.

 

For food companies, the platform allows consumers to share the product information to friends, amplifying a better brand image to wider audience. This function is free for all GS1 Hong Kong members.

 

How to use Barcode Scan@WeChat function

 

 

 

 

 

1. Consumers turn on the “Scan QR Code” function on WeChat to scan the barcodes on products;


2. Consumers can read the product information which the brand owner input onto a cloud-based platform.

 

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Appendix –

Quality Food Traceability Scheme 2017 Winner List (in alphabetical order)

 

Diamond Enterprise Winners

Hop Hing Oils and Fats (Hong Kong) Limited

Maxim's Caterers Limited

Swire Coca Cola HK

Tsit Wing Coffee Co. Limited

Vitasoy International Holdings Limited (New Join)

Gold Enterprise Winners

Aeon Stores (Hong Kong) Co. Limited

Café De Coral Holdings Limited

Cafe Deco Group

DCH FOODS Deluxe

DCH Logistics Co. Limited

Getz Bros. & Co. (Hong Kong) Limited

The Kowloon Dairy Limited

Lorence & Company Limited

New Hung On Vegetables Trading Co. Limited

Sims Trading Company Limited

Sun Fat Heung Food Products Limited

Wyeth (Hong Kong) Holding Company Limited

Silver Enterprise Winners

Aquaculture Technologies Asia Limited

Fai Shing Grocery & Frozen Meat Limited

NutroPet Arena

Rich Harvest Agricultural Produce Limited

 

Media Contacts

 

Corinna Fung

Telephone: +852 2863 2787

Email: corinnafung@gs1hk.org

 

Will Ip

Telephone: +852 2863 2763

Email: willip@gs1hk.org

 

About GS1 Hong Kong

Founded by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce in 1989, GS1 Hong Kong is the local chapter of GS1^®, a not-for-profit, standards organisation that develops and drives adoption of easy-to-implement global standards for business to uniquely identify, accurately capture and automatically share vital information about products, locations and assets. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, GS1 has over 110 national chapters in 150 countries.

 

GS1 Hong Kong’s mission is to enable Hong Kong enterprises to improve the efficiency, safety, and visibility of supply chains across multiple sectors and facilitates commerce connectivity through the provision of global standards and a full spectrum of standards-based solutions and services. GS1 Hong Kong engages with communities of trading partners, industry organisations, government, and technology providers to understand and respond to their business needs through the adoption and implementation of global standards.

 

Currently, GS1 Hong Kong has over 7,000 corporate members covering close to 20 industries including retail consumer goods, food and food services, healthcare, apparel, logistics as well as information and technology. GS1 Hong Kong continually enhances and rolls out new services and solutions to help our corporate members to embrace new realities, new challenges, and new opportunities.

 

For more information about GS1 Hong Kong, please visit www.gs1hk.org.