The Digital Future of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG)

Privacy-Preserving Traceability with Digital Product Passports & Data Spaces Interoperability

The Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry is undergoing a rapid transformation. Consumers demand accountability and sustainability—over 70% want detailed product information—while new regulations like the EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA) reshape the landscape. Big data leaks and supply chain disruptions have become the norm. As regulations grow increasingly stringent, consumer trust falters, and operational costs skyrocket, a paradigm shift is essential. The industry needs verifiable, trusted data seamlessly integrated — and a system that enables seamless, permissioned data exchange across the value chain.

Digital Product Passports (DPPs) are a key component of this transformation. A DPP is a secure, globally unique digital record that stores verifiable information about a product throughout its lifecycle—from raw materials to disposal. Widespread adoption of DPPs is critical for building trust, strengthening value chain resilience, and ensuring regulatory compliance. According to the EU, which now requires DPPs for nearly all products sold in the EU, “the DPP is designed to close the gap between consumer demands for transparency and the current lack of reliable product data.”

However, DPPs alone are not enough. To truly unlock their potential, we need a standardized framework for data spaces interoperability—a system that enables direct, seamless transactions between participants across industries. Modern value chains involve collaboration among thousands of stakeholders, including enterprises, regulators, and consumers. When these value chains function efficiently, they improve product quality, optimize resource allocation, and lower costs. Yet, despite technological advancements, achieving this level of coordination remains a challenge.

Introduction to MOBI’s Web3 Infrastructure

Today, many organizations rely on third-party platforms and proprietary applications for data exchange, resulting in fragmented, siloed systems. This lack of interoperability limits collaboration and hinders critical processes, from ensuring product safety and ethical sourcing to enabling proper recycling and end-of-life management. Recognizing this, MOBI was formed in 2018 as a neutral convener for organizations to develop standards and infrastructure for DPPs and data spaces interoperability. MOBI’s Web3 Infrastructure, comprising Citopia Decentralized Marketplace (DM) and the Integrated Trust Network (ITN), offers a secure, decentralized marketplace framework with standardized communication protocols. Think of it as a private internet, wherein entities can engage in secure, autonomous, encrypted transactions.

Citopia DM and the ITN are built for Self-Sovereign Data and Identity (SSDI). Each participant owns and manages their own Self-Sovereign Digital Twin (SSDT), which stores two things:

This SSDT allows participants to engage in standardized, secure, and compliant transactions on Citopia DM with selective disclosure (data only goes to intended recipients). Both Citopia and ITN are system and cloud-agnostic, meaning stakeholders can seamlessly communicate while retaining their existing systems and web services. This removes the need for costly one-off integrations and eliminates prohibitive onboarding/maintenance costs, providing a robust foundation for data spaces interoperability.

Citopia DM unlocks new possibilities for DPPs by enabling direct peer-to-peer transactions between value chain participants. Removing reliance on third-party intermediaries lowers costs, increases traceability, and drives compliance with emerging regulatory requirements. Companies leveraging MOBI’s infrastructure can streamline operations, reduce data silos, and improve their ability to meet evolving consumer and regulatory demands. For regulators and consumers of CPGs, Citopia DM offers easy access to trusted DPPs issued by companies. For regulators, this makes it easy to verify compliance claims. For consumers, access to DPPs can inspire confident purchasing decisions and boost brand loyalty.

Laying the Foundation for Generative AI Applications

MOBI is going to take this one important step further. The robust infrastructure it has built not only addresses the critical need for tracebility and data exchange but also lays the foundation for powerful generative AI applications. By leveraging the rich, contextual data housed within DPPs and the seamless data flow facilitated by Citopia and SSDTs between rich data spaces, generative AI can move beyond generic analyses to provide participant-specific value. Imagine a scenario where:

  • Consumers can interact with generative AI agents to understand the complete lifecycle of a product they are considering purchasing. These agents, equipped with DPP data accessed through Citopia, can answer nuanced questions about a product’s sustainability footprint, ethical sourcing, or even detailed ingredient breakdowns, generating responses tailored to the individual consumer’s values and concerns. For example, a consumer with specific dietary restrictions or sustainability preferences could ask a generative AI agent: “Show me the carbon footprint and allergen information for the ingredients in this cereal, and suggest alternatives with lower environmental impact and no nuts.” The agent, accessing the DPP via Citopia, can generate a personalized, privacy-preserving response, drawing from verified data and offering actionable recommendations.
  • CPG Companies can utilize generative AI to optimize their operations and gain deeper market understanding. Generative AI agents can analyze aggregated and anonymized DPP data from across the value chain within Citopia to identify supply chain inefficiencies, predict potential disruptions, or personalize marketing campaigns with unprecedented precision. For instance, a generative AI agent could analyze DPP data to recommend optimal sourcing strategies based on real-time insights into material availability, ethical considerations, and environmental impact, while ensuring compliance with regulations like UFLPA. Furthermore, generative AI can assist in generating customized sustainability reports or proactively flag potential regulatory compliance issues based on DPP data, streamlining operations and reducing risks.
  • Regulators can employ generative AI agents to efficiently monitor and verify compliance with evolving regulations like the ESPR. These agents can be granted permissioned access to DPP data within Citopia, enabling them to automatically audit product information against regulatory requirements and identify potential non-compliance issues at scale. Generative AI can generate summaries of compliance status across product categories or highlight specific areas needing further investigation, significantly enhancing regulatory oversight and consumer protection.

The key to enabling these generative AI applications lies in the architecture of MOBI’s Web3 infrastructure. SSDTs with secure identities backed by the ITN ensure that each participant retains control over their data, can choose what data to disclose (and to whom), and can securely exchange verifiable data in a regulatory-mandated Zero Trust Architecture.

Generative AI agents operating within this framework can be designed to access and process data in a privacy-preserving manner. For example, they can utilize techniques like differential privacy or federated learning to generate insights from aggregated DPP data without needing to access or expose the raw, sensitive data of individual participants. Selective disclosure of VCs ensures that only authorized agents receive the necessary data points, minimizing the risk of data breaches or misuse.

Conclusion

This means that the combination of DPPs and interoperable data spaces facilitated by MOBI’s infrastructure and generative AI represents an entirely new business phase for the CPG industry. It moves beyond basic traceability to enable a future where data becomes a dynamic tool for generating participant-specific value, fostering deeper consumer trust, optimizing business operations, and ensuring robust regulatory compliance – all within a secure and privacy-respecting ecosystem.

MOBI’s Web3 infrastructure is, therefore, a game-changer for the CPG industry, offering a scalable, decentralized approach to data verification and interoperability while enabling participant-specific insights and recommendations using generative AI. As consumer expectations evolve and regulatory landscapes shift, embracing decentralized, self-sovereign solutions will be the key to sustainable growth and competitive advantage. The future of CPG lies in verifiable, trusted data, and MOBI is leading the way in building the infrastructure to support it.