The Co-operative Food is unveiling a new iPhone app that allows shoppers to scan items on shelves and instantly see the farms where they are grown.
The Co-operative Food’s Grown by Us app, which can be downloaded for free, will be launched during the Royal Bath and West Show (2 to 5 June).
It includes information about food and drink produced by The Co-operative Farms, The Co-operative Group’s own farming business and the UK’s largest farmer.
The new app will be officially launched at a seminar The Co-operative Group is staging with HRH The Countess of Wessex, at the Show on Thursday 3 June. The seminar, in the Bath and West Theatre, is designed to build stronger links between farmers and food retailers. It will feature Peter Marks, The Co-operative Group’s Group Chief Executive, and will include presentations as well as a question and answer session.
The Co-operative Farms farms more than 50,000 acres at sites across the UK – including farms at Down Ampney, near Cirencester, and Tillington, near Hereford. Its Grown by Us range, sold in Co-operative food stores, includes products grown on its farms, or made using produce grown by the business.
Grown by Us currently includes, when in season, apples, strawberries, potatoes, peas, carrots, broccoli, sweetcorn, onions, beetroot, flour, apple juice, cider, honey, and even turkeys.
The new iPhone app will allow shoppers to scan barcodes of Grown by Us items on the shelves in Co-operative Food stores, and see aerial photographs of the farms where the products are grown.
There is also background information about each farm, the range of produce grown there, and even information about The Co-operative Farms’ farm managers. In future, the app will have a store locator linked to a GPS system so shoppers can find their nearest Co-operative Food store wherever they are.
Peter Jones, who has developed the app for The Co-operative Food, said: “This is the first Co-operative Food app for the iPhone and we are really excited about it. The provenance of food is increasingly important to shoppers, and this is a great way for our customers to really connect with our farms and see where their food and drink comes from.”
As well as unveiling the new iPhone app, the Good with Food Roadshow will showcase high quality local and British food and drink products, as well as The Co-operative’s ethical approach to retailing.
Highlights at the stand will include cookery demonstrations by chef Rob Morris, featuring recipes including The Co-operative’s higher welfare Elmwood chicken, local Somerset strawberries and The Co-operative Farms’ Tillington Hills cider, made from apples grown on its Herefordshire farm.
There will be a “smoothie bike”, allowing visitors to create their own healthy drinks using pedal power, and interactive exhibits featuring Grown by Us, The Co-operative’s Plan Bee initiative – to save the UK’s honey bees from the threat of extinction – and From Farm to Fork, an education initiative that encourages school children to visit The Co-operative’s farms.