June 7--The Packmark laser marking system from Datalase has been successfully trialed by the American Bakers Association (ABA) for the marking of variable information on polyethylene bread bags.
In four field trials conducted in bakeries, time, date, and expiration codes were laser marked on a blank white panel on the otp and end of the bags. The field trials were conducted as part of a project initiated by ABA last February in response to the pressure put on bakers and their suppliers by strict environmental and food safety regulations requiring an increasing amount of readable information to appear on baked food packages.
The initial tests for date and code marking involved 25 companies and results were very positive, confirming the suitability of Datalase Packmark for this application, said Datalase.
According to Datalase, using Packmark enabled bread bags to be marked easily, code quality was consistent, even with the inconsistent height and shape of the product.
Traditionally, laser equipment is used in many bakeries for the coding and marking of boxes.
Reportedly, the adoption of this process for bag marking would reduce maintenance by standardizing on one marking method across a range of applications.