Health and wellness continue to drive food purchase decisions.

Gladson, a Lisle, Ill.-based provider of product images, product information and store optimization services, said its data show that health-related claims on product packaging have been on the rise in recent years. The data were taken from its E-Commerce Database, which features more than 600,000 items, thousands of which are updated weekly. From 2013 to 2015, Gladson said its database indicated a 61 percent increase in items marketed as gluten-free, a 77 percent increase in items labeled organic and a 43 percent increase in items labeled with allergen claims.

“Consumers today are more discerning about the products they buy, and their criteria continues to evolve,” said Susan Sentell, CEO and president, Gladson. According to a new study by New York-based Deloitte, the Food Marketing Institute, Arlington, Va., and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), Washington, D.C., 51 percent of Americans are looking at factors such as health and wellness and transparency as food purchase drivers, in addition to traditional factors such as taste and price, the company said.

“In the complex and competitive grocery aisle, consumers have more product options available to them,” Sentell said. “To earn customer loyalty and sales, manufacturers and retailers need to provide accurate and expanded product information via traditional avenues such as the product package, and on digital platforms, such as websites and mobile apps.”

To help brands and retailers meet shoppers’ expectations, Gladson said its product content database offers a complete digital representation of each product, including high-resolution images and more than 200 product attributes including nutrition facts, ingredients, allergens, weights and dimensions, warnings and marketing claims.

Gladson said it is also supporting various industry initiatives that promote product information transparency, including GMA’s SmartLabel. With SmartLabel, consumers will have instantaneous access to detailed information on thousands of products by scanning a bar code or doing an online search. Gladson customers could have their product content created, hosted and delivered in accordance with the SmartLabel program requirements.