Keep it simple

27 October 2009



As food brands diversify, the sheer proliferation of products now available has led to increased risk of packaging and coding errors. Dave Bradbury, of ICE, outlines why the correct choice of coding equipment and ‘keeping it simple’ has a significant part to play in reducing this risk for manufacturers


The need for accurate on-pack coding in the food industry has never been stronger. Partly, it is a legislative issue. As traceability standards become ever more stringent, the amount of information that must be included on-pack is increasing all the time, from nutritional data to allergy warnings. The penalties for getting it wrong are severe, in terms of cost and brand reputation. And retailers’ demands for accuracy are getting tougher.

These factors are well established in the minds of food manufacturers and many have already begun to concentrate their attention on coding accuracy to protect themselves from such penalties, investing in auto-coding or Package Coding Management (PCM) systems. At ICE, for example, we supply the market leading Claricom suite of (PCM) software. Nevertheless, we would argue that an even more important first step is to ensure the right choice of coder to eliminate operator error in the first place.

The continual drive to develop more sophisticated coding and labelling equipment has also led manufacturers to develop advanced colour and touchscreen user interfaces.

However, the more advanced the interface, the greater the danger of operator error. An alternative approach is therefore to keep things simple. The benefits of simplifying the traditional coder user interface are most apparent when it comes to printer set-up, where it is common that the operator will have to enter information such as the ‘use by’ date, price or batch codes.

To avoid this, it is worth investing in specialist message design software to pre-create message templates offline. These can then be loaded in to the printer via a network or USB-memory stick. The operator can then select these messages, each of which has a logical name to suit the product, and only change the permitted variable data within preset parameters.

If a product for ASDA requires a single ‘use-by’ date, the operator is prompted for a single ‘use-by’ date. If a product for Marks and Spencer requires a dual date code, then the operator is prompted for a ‘display until’ date and a ‘use-by’ date; or better still, the operator is prompted for one date and the other one is calculated automatically.

Inputting the required information is not always straightforward of course: consider a simple salad packing example where the ‘use-by’ date is based on the day of harvest.

The variation between harvest and pack means that a completely automatic ‘use-by’ date calculation is impossible, which is where most people revert to manual set-up: the operator types in the ‘use-by’ date.

With the right software and printer choice, it is possible to pre-configure the product-specific rules to eliminate errors. In the above example, operators would still be prompted for a date, but it would be the harvest date. It is entered on a calendar date picker rather than typed in to further reduce errors, and only dates within the permitted range are allowed.

Interactive Coding Equipment (ICE)

The philosophy of Interactive Coding Equipment is reliable operation and lowest possible cost of ownership. ICE represents a range of coding equipment, all of which can be integrated with Claricom Package Coding Management (PCM) software to eliminate risk and ensure accuracy.

The Zodiac solid-state ribbon drive is said to deliver a ‘quantum leap improvement’ in reliability, with thousands of units installed worldwide. (Patents and Patents Pending).

Thermal Transfer Overprinting (TTO) is the established technology of choice for a wide range of coding applications, from label overprinting to high speed coding on vertical bagging machines and flow-wrappers. It has a bi-directional solid state ribbon drive system (patents pending), which has no clutches and no brakes, so no manual settings or adjustments are required.

ICE offers the range of Torus high definition inkjet printers which all feature a patented self-maintaining printhead system; and the ICE range of PrintApply Labelling Machines (PALM).


A Zodiac TTO coding machine on a pharmaceutical labeller ICE

ICE ICE


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