Brands

• These are the brands of the product.
• In the database, this field is called brands.
• See issues related to brands.
• See also: https://github.com/openfoodfacts/openfoodfacts-server/pull/4385

Help annotate brands using Hunger Games

• https://hunger.openfoodfacts.org/brandinator

Suggested solution for the taxonomy

Short-term solution

Make brands language-less

Iif a brand has a translated name, in some countries then we consider it to be a different brand (in a lot of cases the products sold under those translated names will be different).

For products that display the brand in only one language, we just record that brand, and we display it as-is.

Mid-term solution (to be defined/work in progress)

The taxonomy for brands should have following features:

• a single brand is defined by a block of text and are separated by white lines;
• use a four letters code separated by underscore - <iso_639_language_code> _<iso_3166_country_code> - for the key. Example: fr_be, de_at.
• a single line defines the brand in a specific language and country or an attribute. Each line starts with the key name followed by parameters and separated by a colon.
• a block can contain (mind the order):
  • (optional) a reference to a parent defined by "<" + the key (as described above) and the first parameter of an existing brand. For example "<ab_cd:brand1" refers to the parent key "ab_cd:brand1, synonym_of_brand1". Remark: any attributes shared between the parent and the child only have to be specified in the parent, i.e., they are inherited by the child. Remark: if a reference to a parent is provided it should be the first line of the block.
  • (required) a key (as described above). For example: "mn_op:brand 1". It should be unique, so that we can distinguish between brands with the same name.
  • (optional) a default key (xx_xx:) to be used for any language that is not specifically listed. It is always xx_xx. Remark: if it is provided it should be the last line after all other languages.
  • (optional) attributes - each brand can have one or more attributes. Remark: if provided attribute(s) should be the last line after all other languages and the default key (xx_xx):
    • wikipedia:en: - the full link to a page, which explains the brand(!!!). Note that brands are not well available on wikipedia;
    • wikidata:en: - the identifaction of the wikidata entry for the brand(!!). Note that brands are not well available on wikidata;

Example

de_de:lidl

de_au:lidl

fr_fr:lidl

fr_be:lidl

hr_hr:lidl

xx_xx:lidl

wikipedia:en:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidl

wikidata:Q151954

<de_de:lidl

de_de:snack day

xx_xx:lidl

In this example, we put de_de as first language because Lidl is a German company. Nevertheless, it should work the same starting with different language, at the condition that children refers to the parent accordingly.

Long-long-term solution (to be defined/work in progress)

Same as before, adding:

• (optional) attributes
  • barcodeprefix:en: - the first 8(?) numbers of the barcode that belong to the brand. With this brands can be automatically assigned to a barcode. Also the barcodes of existing products can be checked;
  • brand_owner_opencorporates:xx: - an identification of the probable brand owner/distributor on opencorporates. It is not always clear what should be written down here.
  • idea: local customer service address (one for each country where the product is distributed, and a generic one)
  • idea: eu trademark - maybe only useful for name trademarks? (not logo's). But not relevant to the consumer.
  • idea: stores - the stores where the brand is sold. Maybe better to create a store taxonomy and link from there to brands?

Example

zz:laespanola

xx:La Española
barcodeprefix:en:8410226
barcodeprefix:en:8410660
category:en en:Olive tree products
brand_owner_opencorporates:ES:80245129
#94 products @2022-04-23

zz:latrappe
xx:La Trappe
barcodeprefix:en:8711406
category:en en:belgian-beers
label:en: en:authentic-trappist-product
website:nl:https://nl.latrappetrappist.com/nl/nl.html
brand_owner_opencorporates:BE:0838355558
wikidata:en:Q590921

#11 products @2022-04-23

Q&A

• Product has more than a single brands.
  • Product is part of a bigger brand or group.
    • For example, Actimel is sold by Danone.
    • For example, By Sainsbury's is sold by Sainsbury's.
    • Solution: make Actimel a child of Danone in this example.
  • Synonyms. Product is sold with 2 brands, each for different language/countries.
    • For example, both Nature Valley and Val Nature can be written on the same product, but not always.
    • Solution: make Val Nature a child of Nature Valley in this example because Nature Valleyis the original U.S. brand (reference).
    • For example, No Name and Sans nom can be written on the same product, but not always.
    • Solution: make No Name , No Name Sans nom and Sans nom three separate children of Generic brand in this example because they are all lines of Generic brandwhich is a Canadian brand (reference). Or, the three of them as synonyms of each others and child of Generic brand.
    • For example, Coop, in Switzerland, can add up to three brands on a product: Betty Bossi, Karma and Coop. They justify it: "We offer a wide range of own-label brands and brand worlds." (source)
    • Solution:
    • For example, Lipton belongs to Unilever but this product is distributed by Pepsico . Lipton used to belong to Unilever, and now belong to CVC Capital Partners. Lipton's ready to drink beverages belongs to both Unilever and PepsiCo (who is distributor).
    • Solution:
    • For example, The Laughing Cow and La vache qui rit.
    • Solution: they both belong to the same parent (Bel Group). They can be en_us and fr_fr.
    • For example, Miko/wall's ice creams, called Frigo in Spain but Bresler in Chile and Bolivia.
    • Solution: es_es:frigo and es_cl:bresler / es_bo:bresler will be on the same block
    • For example, The Coca-Cola Company sells Fanta in Thailand under Fanta and แฟนต้า names.
    • For example, Danone sells mineral water in Morroco under both عين سايس and aïn Saïss names.
    • For examples, Japanese/English (like 味の素/Ajinomoto) or Chinese/English (乐虎/Hi-Tiger)
    • Solution: th_th:แฟนต้า/fanta, แฟนต้า, fanta in the same block as en_us:fanta
  • Also synonyms. Product brand has changed over time.
    • Solution: use synonyms in the taxonomy.
  • One brand is owned by two companies.
    • For example, Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd use the name Aldi but they operate in different areas (between countries, and inside Germany itself)
    • Solution: make Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd children of Aldi. In general, people will input Aldi only. However, if someone put Aldi Nord, it should include its parent, Aldi automatically.
  • The name of the brand is different from the name of the shop of these brand.
    • For example Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd brand, use the international (now unified) brand Aldi (https://aldi.com/), which is also the common used shop name for both Aldi brands in Germany. So the Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd brand, which are only used as shop indication brands on products (at least in Germany), have to resolved to the common shop name Aldi instead of Aldi Nord or Aldi Süd. For the brand Aldi Süd the shops could be also named Aldi Süd, as written on the logo used inside Germany, but as the shop name of the Aldi Nord brand was always Aldi from the beginning, no one in Germany use Aldi Süd as name for these shops.
  • One brand is distributed/produced locally by another brand
    • For example, the licensing of beer brands: the same brand may be exploited under a licensing agreement by different companies depending on the country (and this can change with time). My understanding is that it is because for beer, it is a lot cheaper to produce locally than to transport internationally. In the UK San Miguel would probably be under Carlsberg Marstons, but in Spain it would be under Mahou San Miguel and in the Philippine or Hong Kong under the (original) San Miguel Brewery.
    • For example, Asahi, manufactured for the European market by its local subsidiaries (Peroni in Italy, for instance) but used to be licensed to Carlsberg Marstons or AB Inbev depending on the country. Some Asahi brands are still licensed to AB InBev at least for some European markets. It used to be very opaque, but recent events made that obvious.
    • In Algeria, a lot of brands are done under licensing because of local laws which forbid a company which is not 51% owned by an Algerian to produce locally while import of a lot of products is forbidden or very limited.
    • Solution:
• Same name shared by different brands.
  • For example, San Miguel is a beer in Spain [cervezas san miguel], food in Mexico [grupo agroindustrial san miguel], honey in Spain/France [Ramros Trading Company])
  • For example, Star is starfinefood in the U.S., Star S.p.A. in Italy, stardrinks in the United Arab Emirates, star from Ghadawat Indian airlines company,
  • For example, Walkers represents 3 different brands (1, 2 and 3)
  • For example, Dove is either cosmetic (from Unilever) or chocolates brand (from Mars)
  • Solution: In long term we could have some set of rules like if it is San Miguel and category is Beers, then rename Cerezas San Miguel. Same for food vs cosmetic.
  • For example, Cornetto is a sub-brand of both Frigo and Miko (see previous discussion)
  • Solution: make Cornetto child of both brands.
• Products without brands written.
  • For example. No brand. I used the company name of the packager as brand to make search preview more useful.
  • For example, unbranded product of the brand Harvest House. The producer has a brand Harvest House used for other fresh tomato products, but it's products also appears under other brands.
• Brand spelling and formatting.
  • Is it Coop, coop, COOP, CO OP?
  • Solution: in taxonomy, there are no difference between lower and upper case, there are no difference between space and hyphen. We can make coop a synonym of co op.
  • Brands containing an apostrophe or quotes are often missing this one.
    • For examples for apostrophes, Lay's vs Lays, Kellogg's vs Kelloggs, Sar'Ocean.
    • For example for quotes,The Muffin "Mam" Inc
    • Solution: use synonyms in the taxonomy.
  • Brands with special characters like &
    • For example for &, M&M's
    • Solution: special characters should be recognized. Eventually, use synonyms in the taxonomy.
  • Brands with commas
    • For example for commaWilliams, West & Witt's Products
    • Solution: brand should be written without the comma. it is not possible to use commas in the tags (if you write comma it will start a new tag, this example will result in two tags: Williams and West & Witt's Products or use ";" as separator as OpenStreetMap.
  • Brand with only numbers
    • For examples, 1664, 1883 or 365.

• company structure - do we want to list (and research) all the relationships between owners, marketing companies, etc. I would suggest that we do NOT and limit ourselves to the brands and brand owner (and maybe the production company);
  • comment: overkill - it is very tempting to add al kinds details for owners, etc. The actual owners of the product, brand, etc, do not seem useful to the consumer. We just should provide links to third parties for this kind information. I.e. wikipedia, wikidata,, opencorporates, ipo europe, ...
  • Decision:
• parent brand - when should the parent brand be added? Only if the parent brand is available on the front of the packaging, or also when it is shown on the back of the packaging, or when we can find out the legal final parent owner of a brand? This choice might have an implication for how we structure the data.
  • comment @benbenben: at least having sub-brands/lines of a brand would be beneficial - for quality checks as well as monitoring number of products from the same distributor - even if the brand is not written on the package.
    • For example, S-budget is a child of Spar.
    • For example, Pilos is a child of Lidl.
  • Decision:
• EAN manufacturer codes - is there an open database which we could use?

Observations summary

Summarizing the observations note above, we see the following brands:

• 1 universal brand, exact same name used in all countries and languages. e.g. "Nutella"
• 2 brand that is translated in different languages or scripts "The Laughing Cow", "La vache qui rit" (example) EDIT they both belong to the same parent (Bel Group)
• 3 brands that have the same name, but used in different languages
• 4 brands that have the same name, but used in different countries
• 5 brands that have the same name, and used in the same country. (e.g. "Ferrero" in Italy: there's also a pasta brand. EDIT pasta brand in Italy named Industria-alimentare-ferraro).
• 6 brands in non-latin scripts, which can not be latinised
• 7 parent brands are sometimes shown on packaging

Use cases (UC below)

The brands taxonomy has multiple applications within Open Food Facts. These are:

• 1 Display the brands of a product, in the language requested by the user;
• 2 Have a way to list all products of a brand;
• 3 Let users enter brands for a product, as they appear on the package (as free text);
• 4 Let the user select the correct brand from a list of existing brands. If the same brand text occurs multiple times, the user must be able to select the applicable one;
• 5 Suggests a brand to the user based on the manufacturer part of the barcode and other information;
• 6 Infer category and labels from brand - some brands are only used for specific products. This implies that the product category and possible labels can be implies (suggested);
• 7 Infer brand from manufacturer code within the barcode;
• 8 Barcode/Brand quality check - if the manufacturer part of the barcode does not match the specified brand, there is an error in either of them;

Design considerations

The observations and use cases lead to several design considerations:

1. Unique brand key - as the same brand (string) can exist in multiple geographic areas or within the same geographic area, there must be a way to uniquely distinguish between the various brands. Otherwise, a user can not enter the correct brand (UC1), nor can we list all brands (UC2);
2. Uses selectable brand - there must be a brand name in the same language/script of the package. If that name occurs multiple times in the taxonomy, it must be specified by product category, country sold, etc in order to make it unique. For instance, the label Taste occurs in France and Argentina, but is used for different categories. So the user should have the choice Taste (category 1 - France) and Taste (category 2 - Argentina). Maybe this can be mixed with the key. (UC4). EDIT: there are no Taste brands neither in France not in Argentina.
3. Language/script specific brands - a way to code a single brand in multiple scripts and/or languages, for example in Chinese, Arabic and English (UC1)
4. Language independent brand - a way to encode a brand that is valid for multiple languages (UC1);

Brands and Robotoff (AI)

Preventing OFF AI to detect some false brands: see brand_taxonomy_blacklist.txt.

Help to collect brands

The AI of Open Food Facts, called Robotoff, is trying to identify brands in several ways. We use OCR in combination with known values. We also have another technique using pure computer vision and annotations to create cluster of brands by visual similarity. The annotations made by Robotoff are provided to users, asking them to answer to a simple question. There are also used by Hunger Game. Everyone can use Hunger Game, but be careful to the issues mentioned in this current page.

• on 2020-10-29, there were 43200 annotations and 22748 remaining
• on 2020-11-17, there were 46911 annotations and 22720 remaining
• on 2020-11-17, there were ? and 57879 remaining

Known challenges

Some brand names are related to common name, expressions or ingredients producing false positive with AI tool. For examples:

• Racines (means "roots" in French)
• La Truffe (means "the truffle" in French)
• Pure Protein
• Best Choice is a brand, not a tagline
• Great Value also
• The Belgian, often entered Belgian; it produces many false positive from our AI.

External brands databases

• https://branddb.wipo.int/en/similarname/brand/FR501998098726080?sort=score%20desc&start=0&rows=30&asStructure=%7B%22_id%22:%22de0a%22,%22boolean%22:%22AND%22,%22bricks%22:%5B%7B%22_id%22:%22de0b%22,%22key%22:%22brandName%22,%22value%22:%22miko%22,%22strategy%22:%22Simple%22%7D,%7B%22_id%22:%22de0f%22,%22key%22:%22niceClass%22,%22value%22:%5B%7B%22value%22:%2243%22,%22label%22:%2243%22,%22label2%22:%2243%20-%20Services%20for%20providing%20food%20and%20drink;%20temporary%20accommodation%22,%22score%22:72,%22highlighted%22:%2243%20-%20Services%20for%20providing%20%3Cem%3Efood%3C%2Fem%3E%20and%20drink;%20temporary%20accommodation%22%7D%5D,%22strategy%22:%22all_of%22%7D%5D%7D&fg=_void_&_=1724426189605&i=18