Consumer Advocates Wary of Digitally Coded Food Labels

If nutrition labels require a smartphone app to unlock, will consumers read them? That is the debate dividing healthy-food advocates and some food manufacturers that intend to use so-called QR codes in part to comply with new federal label requirements. The law, signed last week by President Barack Obama, obliges food companies to flag genetically modified ingredients with plain writing, an icon developed by regulators, or digitally readable symbols known as a QR code. The law lets companies make GMO disclosures using only QR codes and not words—something the food industry supported.