Fresh produce suppliers need to keep pace with increasing demands for more convenient, flexible and innovative packaging as consumers look for their ‘five-a-day’ purchases.
Flow-wrap packaging for vegetables and ready-to-eat fresh produce such as mixed leaf salads and fruit trays is becoming more popular as an alternative to loose items tossed into brown paper or plastic bags.
But while the focus is still on supplying food that is as fresh as the day it was picked while wrapped attractively to catch the eye of customers, it must also be labelled accurately so that shoppers can make informed choices about their purchases.
Labels, as part of the packaging process, serve many important purposes and provide shoppers with vital information such as a product’s, type and size in addition to displaying the barcode for pricing.
The listing of the product’s, country of origin is important for traceability, and other data such as company name and specific geographic locations is often added for branding purposes. However, equipment must label accurately without creating a bottleneck that could hit production at the packing house – potential downtime which might even compromise the freshness of the items.
Forward thinking English Village Salads Ltd has been supplying high quality produce to the UK retail market since 1991 and has recently taken delivery of a Eurokett Junior 115 label applicator from Advanced Dynamics Ltd to label the flow-wrapped tomatoes the company provides for a major high-street supermarket.
Advanced Dynamics’ Eurokett Junior is a versatile piece of equipment, ideal for fresh produce as it can be fully integrated or bespoke depending on the customer’s requirements, is easy to use, operates 10 hours a day and can reliably label odd-shaped items and the full range of package configurations from the base to the top.
At English Village Salads’ Selby site, the Eurokett Junior is labelling the film for tomatoes in tray-less six packs on a high-speed in-feed conveyor. The fruit is orientated and held captive as it is moved through the packaging line for labelling.
The impressively high labelling speed is enhanced by the use of micro-thin polyethylene labels that provide better adhesion and appearance on virtually any produce surface when compared to the paper labels still used by some other providers.
English Village Salads engineering manager, Jim Houston, said: “I can’t fault the Eurokett Junior. We are really happy with it. Obviously, as a leading fresh produce company reliable labelling is vital to us to help keep production flowing. The Eurokett Junior does just that. In fact, the whole package from Advanced Dynamics has been first class – from quick turnaround times to quality of service.”
Missing labels or damage caused by rough handling to delicate produce such as vegetables or soft fruit can result in rejection by retailers and loss of profit for the supplier. However, the Eurokett Junior is cost-effective and highly accurate labelling equipment that can eliminate these risks and provide a quick payback.
Eurokett applies front, back and wrap labels as well as handling a wide range of applications, including sachets, trays and cartons. It can undertake a variety of labelling functions, making it highly suitable for applications such as barcoding, applying additional product information and promotional flash labels, to rolls of film from 75mm wide to 800mm long.
This flexible and high-quality equipment is ideal for anything from mushrooms, olives, soft and citrus fruits, right up to potatoes and pumpkins without bruising or scarring – and at labelling speeds of up to 100 punnets per minute, the Eurokett Junior can keep pace with the most up-to-date packing lines.
Joint managing director of Bradford-based Advanced Dynamics, Malcolm Little, said: “There has been a steady growth in ready-to-eat salad and fruit packs making fast and reliable labelling of these odd-shaped items vital to meeting demand. The Eurokett Junior is the workhorse of the labelling industry and is designed to operate in unison with packing equipment, making it ideal for fresh produce processors looking to maximise their production.”
The fresh produce sector demands high standards. Advanced Dynamics is the sole UK distributor of the Eurokett Junior. It has the capacity to safely label virtually any soft fruit or vegetables, is a premium quality front and back labeller with the advantage of high speed, high accuracy and high quality engineering.
Telephone: 01274 731222 or Fax: 01274 308953
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.advanceddynamics.co.uk
