97% of Food and Drink Firms Admit Modern Slavery Risks Lurking in Their Supply Chains
A striking new study has found that 97% of food and drink businesses have identified modern slavery or serious labour rights violations somewhere in their supply chains. The figure, reported by FoodNavigator, dismantles the comfortable assumption that exploitation is a fringe problem confined to a handful of rogue suppliers. It is, instead, an embedded feature of the global retail economy.
The finding lands amid mounting scrutiny of disclosure regimes worldwide. Australia's Modern Slavery Act, the UK's Section 54 transparency requirement, and emerging New Zealand rules all rely on self-reported statements. Yet as CHOICE and other watchdogs have documented, reporting obligations have done little to stop actual instances of exploitation. A statement can be filed, approved by a board, and published without a single verifiable data point attached to a product.
That is the gap the Ethical Transparency Alliance exists to close. Self-reported PDFs are not accountability; machine-readable, product-level data is. When a barcode carries verified supply chain provenance, a 97% risk statistic stops being a press release and becomes an auditable fact attached to a specific item on a specific shelf.
The transition to GS1 2D barcodes offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to embed ethics into the infrastructure of commerce itself. ETA is calling for a dedicated 'gs1:ethics' link type so that verified labour and sourcing data travels with every product, readable by any consumer with a phone. The technology exists. The risk is documented. What remains is the will to make transparency the default rather than the exception.
Why this matters for the Ethical Transparency Alliance:
A 97% risk identification rate proves that voluntary, self-reported disclosure is structurally incapable of delivering accountability. ETA's mission depends on replacing narrative statements with verified, machine-readable data that can be checked at the point of sale. A dedicated 'gs1:ethics' link type in 2D barcodes would convert supply chain claims into auditable attributes, shifting market power toward ethical businesses and informed consumers. Without standardized ethical data embedded in product identifiers, exploitation will continue to hide behind unverifiable paperwork.