South Africa's seriously outdated labelling regulations - five years after they were first published for comment but never promulgated into law - have recently been updated and published for the second time by the Department of Health, with comment invited up until 20 October.
"The regulations stipulate that foods and drinks offered for sale must declare the date of durability or the 'best before' date. Use by dates on items with a shorter shelf-life have to be printed onto the product in full," says Ted Michel, divisional manager of the JSE-listed Square One Solutions Group's coding and marking division.
"Food and drinks manufacturers will also have to print variable batch numbers and production codes onto their products so they are traceable once they have been packaged and left the factory in the event of a product recall."
As the sole South African distributor for Domino Printing Sciences, a global inkjet and laser industrial printing and coding solutions provider, Square One supplies and supports local industry with coding and marking solutions for a wide variety of goods packaged in materials ranging from paperboard to plastics and glass.
Michel says in an environment where people are being bombarded with 'eat healthily' campaigns, they are becoming more selective and seek information about the food or drink and its contents in terms of fats, sugars/sweeteners, salt, fibre and additives.
"Consumers are also becoming more sensitive to their legislative rights, and the new draft regulations seek to make it obligatory for food and beverage manufacturers to print 'best before' dates, 'use by' dates, batch identification and other variable information on the packaging of their products."
Plastic bottles or packs, tins and soft packs are usually placed into bulk cardboard cartons before leaving the factory, and here it is also important to mark similar date, batch and other variable information on each carton's outer casing. Square One offers Domino inkjet and laser printer solutions for coding on PET packaging as well as ranges of sophisticated outer case printers, some with network capabilities that allow multiple printers to be linked together. This gives end-users the option to code using multi-head and multi-production line configurations to mark date, batch and other variable information on carton outer casings.
"Key benefits to manufacturers are savings on the cost of labels as a result of direct printing onto cartons and the elimination of in-house stockholdings of pre-printed cases. The cartons are also easier to recycle after use," says Michel.
The Domino M-Series of end-of-the-line print and apply labelling systems for the in-line marking of cases and pallets has recently been introduced to the South African market and is complementary to the existing Domino C-Series outer case coding equipment, offering a fully modular solution that meets the many and varying needs of consumer goods production and packaging.
Built for continuous operation, the M-Series integrates easily into existing production lines and the modularity ensures specific end-user needs are met. The design reflects an open standards approach for fully networked systems and communication with databases. Both USB and RS232 connections are standard and Ethernet is optional.
Labels can be applied to both moving and stationary products and the high resolution printing of bar codes, text and graphics is compliant with the international GS1 standard.
"The M-Series is flexible and can apply labels with blow, tamp, tamp-blow or wipe label actions in both left and right-hand variants," added Michel. "The range also caters for thermal transfer/direct thermal printing and is also capable of integrating to OEM print engines. Design, set-up and Windows driver software is supplied."
The M-Series range includes the M50 Label Feed Head, the M100 (three direct thermal models), the M200 (four thermal transfer models), the M300 (RFID capable), the M400 (caters for OEM printer variants) and the M600 (caters for pallet systems).
A Product Traceability System (PTS) has been developed by Domino. Fully automated, it applies smart labels (with embedded RFID tags) directly onto outer case packaging. Readable text and bar codes are either applied remotely to the label, which gives flexibility for tag placement, or they are combined within a printed label format.
"The PTS can be integrated within an existing production line or installed independently for batch processing of specific customer orders. By automating the case coding operation with RFID tag application and bar coding, PTS provides immediate cost benefits," says Michel.
"There are also major cost benefits in printing variable data on a standard back label. For example, alcohol content by volume is one variable that by law must be displayed on any wine container offered for sale. By printing this information on the back label after it is applied to the bottle, standard label designs and long label print runs are possible for significant savings."
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Square One Solutions Group is listed on the Software & Computer Services sector of the JSE Securities Exchange. It focuses on providing IT-based business enabling solutions, has a national footprint and more than 20 years of experience in the South African market. Square One Solutions offers value-based solutions centred on IP networking solutions, policy solutions, infrastructure solutions and product coding and marking solutions, to its key target market of enterprise, SME, corporate and government clients. The company also distributes document solutions, colour input and output devices and provides 24x7 national support and service. For more information, visit www.sq1.co.za.
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