You’ll likely never taste Água de Carvalhelhos unless you visit Portugal. But the 100-year-old mineral water brand from the country’s mountainous north has introduced a packaging update that quietly redefines what innovation can mean in FMCG.
Carvalhelhos has added braille inscriptions to its bottle labels.
Think about it: when was the last time you felt braille on a supermarket product? In a sector obsessed with AI-led personalisation and algorithmic optimisation, here is a regional brand choosing something tactile, analogue, and inclusive.
The update allows visually impaired consumers to identify the brand name, the use of recycled plastic (rPET), and the product’s pH level — through touch. It’s a basic function most brands still overlook.
This isn’t Unilever. It’s not Nestlé. But that’s precisely the point: why haven’t global FMCG leaders made this move?
Inclusion by Design
Crucially, this was not a seasonal CSR campaign. Carvalhelhos embedded braille into its production process during a broader shift to preform-based bottling — a system that improves sustainability and energy efficiency.
The change was reviewed and validated by ACAPO, Portugal’s national association for blind and partially sighted individuals. The group called it a meaningful step toward independent access to everyday goods — a benchmark few competitors have met.
The Accessibility Gap in Global FMCG Packaging
Despite over 2.2 billion people living with visual impairments worldwide (WHO, 2023), braille remains rare on food and beverage packaging. In the EU, pharmaceutical products are required to include braille, but there is no such expectation across consumer goods.
According to Retail Technology Innovation Hub, 80% of food brands admit they do not use braille or tactile symbols — leaving millions of people to guess what they are buying and consuming.
Carvalhelhos exports just 15% of its water, primarily to niche and diaspora markets. It is not a global player. Yet it may be quietly setting a precedent that larger companies have failed to meet — or even recognise.
Braille as Brand Equity
From a commercial lens, this isn’t a cost. It’s brand equity — not derived from AI or augmented reality, but from usefulness. Permanence. Respect.
In a retail landscape where values-driven consumption increasingly shapes loyalty, accessibility may be one of the last untapped drivers of long-term trust. And it matters not just to the visually impaired, but to sighted consumers who notice what a brand includes — or omits.
Visibility Beyond Virality
There is no digital campaign. No influencer tie-in. No Cannes Lions submission (probably because of the expense).
The brand announced the move through local press — and little more. And yet its understated act of inclusion raises a sharp question: why aren’t more brands implementing changes that people can literally feel?
Carvalhelhos has reminded us that not every consumer experiences the shelf the same way — and not every act of innovation needs to be seen to be felt.
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