So there you are at the table, munching on your Fruity Pebbles® and staring at the box. Boy is that some dry reading or what? 15mg of Potassium, 3g of Dietary Fiber….zzzzzz. Woh, almost dozed off there. Then suddenly your eyes wonder to the top flap of the box. What’s this, a Date Code? Now there’s something to keep you awake!
Somewhere on most food product packaging is a date code or batch number. This information is critical to your safety. With it companies can track contaminated food. If a spoiled batch is discovered, the company can track down what batches need to be recalled. Without these codes or numbers, either nothing could be recalled or months worth of product would have to be recalled.
Date codes are put on food packaging in two primary ways, indenting and inking. Inking is done with an industrial ink jet. Ink jets are usually networked to the companies server which can coordinate information with production. The other method indenting, actually indents characters into the packaging material. This is a more permanent method. It is also a manual method which requires an operator or machine to change the information being marked. The most basic device used to do this is a Type Holder. More advanced tools, such as a numbering head simplify the changing of digits.
Either method is effective in tracking packages. Indenting is tamper evident, which prevents modification by nefarious parties. Inking is much more automated, and hands off. In any case they both help protect the company and you, the consumer.
Now, where was I? Oh ya, late for work because of this mesmerizing Date Code!
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