Food companies change designs for clean labels

Clean food and beverage labels are important for attracting business, so companies have to put strategies in place to handle possible label changes. Major companies have embraced the idea of a more streamlined label with emphasis on a food item’s fewer ingredients. This practice has become so noted that Food Business News called clean labels the “trend of the year.”

While transparent labels can show the need for more honesty among manufacturers, their growth also shows how careful companies need to be when making statements about their goods. For example, just using the word “simple” on a label isn’t enough: it has to be proven through proper design and disclosure to avoid leading customers astray.

A new look for Country Crock

Another example of clean labeling comes from Country Crock, which has deployed a colorful new label to the front of its redesigned “buttery spread” containers. As Packaging World recently reported, this new approach uses a colorful farm scene image as opposed to the more monochrome color scheme it has traditionally preferred.

The company’s marketing director, Benjamin Crook, specifically connected this new design to preferences from the company’s base. “We are continuously listening to consumers who are asking more from food brands to deliver products that they can trust and are from fewer, simpler ingredients,” he said.

Make your own

In the case of Country Crock, the new design looks very different from the old, and other producers may undergo a similar transition with their product lines. The VIPColor VP485 Color Label Printer is useful for processing large amounts of labels to meet orders in the thousands.