HONG KONG, 12 MARCH 2009 – GS1 Hong Kong yesterday announced the launch of a one-stop product and food quality information portal to address recent food safety incidents.
BarcodePlus, the information portal, acts as ‘a window to product quality and safety’, and can be publicly accessed for critical product quality-related information by simply entering the barcode number printed on a product.
The information portal will cover everything from a product’s shelf life, country of origin, ingredients and packaging, through to images, certifications and testing reports.
GS1 Hong Kong is local chapter of GS1, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve the efficiency and visibility in supply chains.
Raised product safety concerns
In Hong Kong, recent incidents such as melamine-contaminated milk and the current children’s cold medicine scare have raised product safety concerns among consumers to an even higher level. With frequent product recalls and increasing cases of counterfeit goods, the public is becoming desperate for readily available and accurate information on product quality.
The product quality information portal was presented by GS1 Hong Kong, in collaboration with four major product testing and certification bodies in Hong Kong, namely, CMA Testing, Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency, Hong Kong Standards and Testing Centre and SGS Hong Kong. The groundbreaking portal will offer local businesses and consumers quick, one-stop access to critical product quality-related information.
Barcodes beyond POS
GS1 Hong Kong is the only organisation authorised to issue international barcode numbers in Hong Kong to supporting visibility, quality and safety for goods along the supply chain through GS1 keys. Since its introduction in 1970s, the GS1 barcode has become the world’s most widely-adopted sales tool with at least five billion barcodes read on all sorts of goods at retailers all over the world everyday.
With the aim of fully exploiting the value of barcodes beyond point-of-sale scanning for the benefit of the business and community, GS1 Hong Kong has initiated the new product information portal. BarcodePlus is backed by GS1’s barcode numbers and the support of major testing and certification bodies.
One million product records
Scheduled to go live later this year, the one-stop information portal will be built on the organisation’s existing database which carries over one million product records. More items will be added as the portal grows.
Anna Lin, chief executive of GS1 Hong Kong, said, “The portal is expected to offer ample benefits to businesses and consumers through a shared product-quality information database which is comprehensive and well-organised.”
Increase product information transparency
“In addition to providing consumers with a reliable source of information, the new portal will also support various business needs such as product data management, regulation compliance, and brand protection”, said Lin.
Dominic Lam, deputy executive director of CMA Industrial Development Foundation Limited (CMA Testing) at said, “Transparency of product information is an effective way to gain consumer confidence, in this way the ‘BarcodePlus Portal’ provides an excellent platform for information sharing with an innovative and user friendly approach. We believe this cooperation will enhance our ability to support our clients to meet consumers' requirements.”
