Industrial Marking & Coding: Pet Food Packaging Solutions

The modern pet food industry is a thriving and valuable market. Driven by rising pet adoptions, an increased interest in premium formulas, and a growing e-commerce space, today’s pet food market is increasing in both value and product diversity. To satisfy growing customer demand, pet food producers now face higher production volumes and longer production runs than ever before.

Along with unprecedented product demand, pet food companies also need to comply with increasingly stringent traceability requirements to sell their products. As in the case of human food, the Food and Drug Administration enforces strict labeling requirements that require pet food products to display:

• Product identification statements
• Manufacturing/packaging location information 
• Traceable information (e.g., lot codes, batch numbers, etc.)
• Expiration date

If this information is improperly applied or absent, pet food companies are liable to face fines, product recalls, and, in the most extreme cases, legal action.

Fortunately, maintaining high operational efficiency and achieving code compliance isn’t difficult when you have the right solution with ink and hardware for the task. At InkJet, Inc., we offer a variety of custom inks complementing our industrial coding technologies that are ideal for marking & coding pet food packaging. Here’s how our equipment can improve your operation.

The Importance of Properly Coded Pet Food Packaging

In March 2007, the FDA discovered that a variety of pet foods were poisoning cats and dogs across the country. With this new information, the FDA launched an investigation into the cause of this widespread poisoning.

Working with the USDA, the FDA traced the contamination back to a single Chinese company that was supplying tainted ingredients to some of the most popular pet food brands on the market. As a result of this investigation, more than 150 brands of pet food voluntarily pulled their products off of the market.

Multiple Printer Options To Meet Diverse Packaging Needs

The pet food industry is diverse in many ways. Not only do the products greatly vary from company to company, but other factors do as well, including:

• Output volume
• Preferred packaging material
• Facility environmental factors

Each of these elements influences whether a marking system will be able to meet operational requirements.

To meet the needs of different companies, InkJet, Inc. offers a wide variety of marking equipment, ranging from compact thermal inkjet printers and high-resolution case coders to industrial-speed continuous inkjet printers and laser marking systems. With these options, pet food companies of all sizes and specialties can boost operational efficiency and ensure code compliance.

Some of our most popular coding options include:

The DuraCode Continuous Inkjet Printer: Designed to mark packages at speeds above 300 m/min, the DuraCode codes both porous and non-porous substrates uninterrupted for up to 24 hours a day. Built with an IP55 outer structure and able to operate in temperatures ranging from 41-113° F, the DuraCode CIJ can withstand potentially hazardous environmental elements to deliver quality coding results.

The Anser U2 Pro-S Thermal Inkjet Printer: Compact and cost-effective, the Anser U2 Pro-S is a great hardware choice for operations that don’t require the industrial marking speeds offered by CIJ printers. Although the Pro-S’s physical footprint is small, it can still create required product markings at speeds up to 120 m/min and machine-scannable codes at 600 x 300 DPI on a variety of porous and non-porous materials.

The Anser X1 Thermal Inkjet Printer: While the Anser X1 may be a thermal inkjet printer, you wouldn’t know it from its high-speed marking capabilities. Printing at speeds up to 300 m/min, the Anser X1 is one of the most powerful TIJ models on the market today. Beyond industrial speed marking, the Anser X1 offers a number of other impressive features, including a max resolution of 600 x 600 DPI, a 1.97-inch print height (with stitched printheads), IP66 protection, and the ability to control two different production lines simultaneously.

LightJet F8200 Series Laser Marking System: Fast, accurate, and capable of delivering high-quality code results, laser systems are becoming increasingly more popular across the pet food packaging spectrum. InkJet, Inc.’s own LightJet system offers a max marking speed of 2,000 characters per second, making it a great option for high-volume production lines.

Precision Series 72 High-Resolution Case Coder: Designed to print directly onto cardboard shipping cartons, the Precision Series 72 allows users to replace physical labels with directly applied codes, text, and images. If you’re looking to improve your secondary packaging processes, the Precision Series 72 can help you reduce physical labeling needs for higher overall efficiency.

Successful Marking & Coding on Pet Food Packaging Hinges on Ink Choice

When it comes to efficiently marking & coding pet food packaging, hardware choice is only one piece of the puzzle. Unless you are using a laser marking system to code your pet food packaging, you will also need to consider what kind of ink will work best for your needs.

Just as there is no “one size fits all” printer when it comes to pet food marking, there is no single ink formula, either. Instead, the market is filled with different inks that all have their own unique properties and substrate compatibility.