With the increasing complexity of packaging types, it has become more challenging for food and beverage manufacturers to reduce, if not eliminate, any errors in the coding and packaging of products. This is particularly important where mistakes can result in a risk to consumer health.
According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there were 137 product recalls in 2018 due solely to misbranding and undeclared allergens on packaging. These errors are classified as Class 1 recalls where, under FDA regulations, there is a significant risk to health.
On top of this, the frequency of artwork changes and promotional offers has made it increasingly difficult for manufacturers to eliminate errors on packaging lines. With the potential being so high for error, food and beverage companies are looking for solutions.
Take Control of Your Packaging Line
By implementing a combined package of SICK’s extensive sensor product portfolio and AutoCoding Systems software solution, manufacturers can ensure the integrity of products and error proof the coding and packaging process.
Currently, factories throughout the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia use a combination of SICK sensors, barcode readers, and vision products with AutoCoding software solutions on their packaging lines. The combination of both provides the customer reliability and accuracy with the sensor and flexibility in the software platform.
The image-based code readers in the Lector620 OCR product family can be used to record best-before dates and batch numbers on food packaging, and much more.
A Complete Solution
This complete solution is simple and easy to use. By using AutoCoding Systems’ software, users can automatically generate the correct codes based on the product. SICK sensors can then verify the correct code was used and that it actually printed, helping you validate codes and prevent recalls for food safety.
These packaging verification solutions can be implemented in a range of different applications. SICK’s Lector image-based code readers are used for 1D or 2D barcode scanning to check retail barcodes, backweb label barcodes, and packaging artwork barcodes. AutoCoding also has a number of vision installations that incorporates SICK’s ICR inspectors and IVC-3D cameras, and are currently integrating with the new Inspector P series of cameras.
In addition to integrating with SICK scanners, inspectors, and cameras, AutoCoding’s advanced coding management software is designed to control and manage a wide range of different packaging line devices. You’ll have dynamic control of your packaging line, ensuring that it stops in the event of too many misreads or no-reads detected from the SICK sensor or if a device malfunction is detected.
This complete solution provides the consumer goods industry a method to greatly reduce date-coding errors and downtime related to product changeovers. With this solution, you can be one step closer to error proofing your packaging process.
