The importance of easy-to-read allergy labelling on price cards

The number of people worldwide suffering from food allergies is increasing every year. The reasons for this trend are not entirely known, but many experts point to the high level of hygiene in modern societies and food processing as likely causes.

Most allergic reactions to food are only mild and can be treated with over-the-counter antihistamines, but some can be life-threatening and require emergency medical treatment. Therefore, displaying important allergy information on food products is an important responsibility for manufacturers and supermarkets today.

Although many products already display allergen information on their packaging, there are cases where the information is unclear or confusing. That's why we're looking at the most effective ways of displaying food allergy information using easy-to-read price cards and point-of-sale displays, to help your customers make informed purchasing decisions, reducing the risks for allergy sufferers and enabling you to build customer confidence.

On average, a European consumes 59 kg of bread a year. This figure has been falling for several years. However, it is also giving way to new consumer habits. While the traditional activity of a bakery is the sale of bread, the diversity of the range offered in your store has certainly evolved with your customers' buying habits.

We don't all eat the same bread, but the demand is there!

Pastries, chocolates, snacks, confectionery... these are just some of the products on sale that get your customers used to making purchases other than their daily bread. They also enable you to stand out from the crowd, so your first challenge will be to renew yourself.

A food allergy is a condition in which certain food ingredients trigger an abnormal immune response. A number of different ingredients can trigger this reaction, but only eight are responsible for the majority of food allergy reactions worldwide. Good to know:

• Eggs
• Milk
• Nuts
• Peanuts
• Seafood
• Wheat
• Soya
• The fish

All these elements should be subject to allergy labeling, even if food products contain only traces of them. Thus, the FDA and other food safety authorities in the world require that food labels clearly indicate the source of any ingredients that are among the main food allergens, or contain proteins derived from these allergens.

In addition to precise product descriptions, it is now common practice to use allergy-indicating price cards and point-of-sale displays that highlight the existence of these ingredients in products, to ensure that all consumers have all the information they need when making their purchases.

In addition to the eight most common food allergens, there are a number of ingredients known to cause allergic reactions in individuals. These include celery, sesame, lupin and mustard. If you think you may be allergic to a particular ingredient, consult your doctor to confirm it.

Although it's not compulsory to create displays and price cards highlighting these allergens, it does help people with food allergies or intolerances to make safe choices, especially when buying pre-packaged foods sold in supermarkets.

In recent years, consumer habits have undergone radical change. However, the bakery remains a local business that customers like to visit. To maintain this advantage, developing new distribution channels is a real challenge if you want to stand out from the crowd, retain existing customers and attract new ones..

• Presence on social networks,
• Click & Collect,
• Deliveries

You may have taken advantage of the health crisis to develop and test some of these services. Now you need to make them your own to maximize their impact on your sales. Aesthetics are very important in the bakery business. The quality of the product, its production, the craftsman's know-how - aesthetics also reflect the image of a well-kept business. The image of your brand and the beauty of your products are points that you can easily enhance online, on social networks thanks to beautiful photos. Make the most of it, and you'll be able to engage customers in discussion or promote yourself in a different way.

In addition to displaying important allergy information, your price cards should also contain detailed product information and promotional messages, to attract buyers and communicate the value of your products. This can be tricky when you have a lot of information and little space to convey it.

When there are too many words on a price card, it can increase the buyer's cognitive load as they circulate. At best, this will reduce the ability of your price cards to inform the buyer of important product benefits. At worst, people will simply turn away from your product because they don't want to bother reading a complicated display.

You'll need to strike a balance between detailed information on the one hand, and ease of reading and attractiveness on the other. To do this, use price card styles and information layouts strategically to balance allergy information with product descriptions in your supermarket or grocery store.

It's not enough to put allergy information on your price cards in small print. While this allows you to emphasize the benefits of your product, it makes it more difficult for customers with allergies and intolerances to read the information they need. Highlighting allergen information is precisely the opportunity to build a relationship of trust and respect with your customers.

If you're able to provide them with honest, transparent and helpful advice to facilitate their shopping experiences, they'll more easily trust your brand and become customers for life. Even customers without allergies will respect this effort. What's more, the elderly or those with poor eyesight will particularly appreciate it if you highlight important allergy information, so they can read it without tiring.

A number of standard allergy markers can be used to provide shoppers with an easy visual signal that certain foods or beverages contain potentially dangerous allergens. These visual symbols can be used to quickly inform a person that a product may contain an element to which they are allergic.

Indeed, human beings process images 60,000 times faster than text, and 90 % of the information transmitted to the brain is visual. The use of specific allergy symbols instead of simple text descriptions is a fundamental strategy used in product labelling.. Buyers with food allergies or intolerances now have a quick way of checking whether products are safe to eat.

This method also saves space on your price cards thanks to the small size of the allergy symbols, allowing you to take advantage of valuable space to focus on product benefits or style. After all, too much information on a card or POS can overwhelm or deter a buyer. Take a look at the standard allergy symbols in our price card information guide to create your own allergy-friendly supermarket price cards.

In addition to using allergy symbols, you can create an organized table to display allergy information for certain products. Instead of listing each item one by one, in no particular order, you can use a clear, easy-to-understand structure to improve visibility and reduce the time buyers have to spend examining your products.

Ultimately, people like to shop as quickly as possible, and helping them get the information they want more quickly will improve their customer experience. If your allergen information is hidden or confusing, customers could easily become impatient. At the same time, clear and visible information on price cards in your store will help streamline the purchasing process, reduce the risk of complaints and increase the likelihood that customers will trust and respect your brand.

Whether it's information on allergens or product benefits, remember that you must always approach your store's visual branding from the customer's point of view. Create your price cards and POS materials with your customers' concerns and motivations in mind, and you'll stand a good chance of building trust and a genuine relationship, turning occasional shoppers into lifelong fans.