Conveying & accumulation

Machinery brings the future to Latrobe

The front end of this glass line for 12-oz Rolling Rock beer is practically an operator-free zone. Laser-guided vehicles replenish packaging materials on demand. See in-plant video

September 30, 2001

Labeling: Page 158

Secondary Packaging

Furman Foods: Depalletizing

At this canner of tomatoes, tomato sauces, canned beans and related products, filled, unlabeled steel cans arrive stacked in layers on pallets.

August 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Baldor Electric Company: Energy guide label

Baldor Electric (Fort Smith, AR) will begin labeling its Super-E® premium efficient motors with a new EnergyGuide label that will inform customers of the energy savings and dollar savings they can achieve.

August 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Pacific Scientific: Small-footprint drives

Pacific Scientific (Rockford, IL) PC3400 brushless servo drives have a small footprint that makes them especially applicable for packaging, printing, and labeling applications.

August 31, 2001

Labeling

Mixed views on fresh meat labeling

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is getting mixed responses to its 2001 proposal to allow nutrition information for most fresh meat and poultry to be displayed in posters or brochures at point of purchase (POP) rather than on package labels as it is for other food.

August 31, 2001

Flexible packaging

Packaging technologies blossom at seed company

Filling of plant seeds into cans and pouches sold to commercial growers took a big step forward when Seminis built a new plant. Front-and-back labeling systems are standouts.

August 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Food allergens nothing to sneeze at

FDA is looking more closely at food labels and processing/packaging materials to determine whether incidental additives must be declared.

August 31, 2001

Conveying & accumulation

Furman polishes up brightstock packing

Furman Foods increases output with a new depalletizer, tray packer, tray stacker, film wrapper, and shrink tunnel. Conveyors assist flow control to keep things running smoothly. See in-plant video

August 31, 2001

Bag/pouch fill/seal (pre-made bags)

Bakery wraps up production rates

Mail-order bakery Bellows House Bakery, Walpole, NH, found a resolution to high labor costs and low production rates in packaging its grab-and-go cookies and brownies. In fall ’99, manual labor and semi-automatic sealing was replaced by a Fuji-Formost (Woodinville, WA) Model FW-340mII horizontal form/fill/seal wrapper.

July 31, 2001

Conveying & accumulation

Bacardi moves to modernization

A revamp of Line One is just part of a plant-wide move to upgrade, automate, and modernize Bacardi’s Jacksonville, FL, plant. See in-plant video

July 31, 2001

Filling/capping, liquid & viscous

Single line pours out many SKUs with new options

One packaging line plus 10 different containers equals 60 SKUs, thanks to new end-of-the-line bundling and tray-pack equipment and film.

July 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

FDA demands proof of botanical claims

FDA is cracking down on increasingly popular botanically enhanced foods and beverages, demanding proof they are safe and do not make false and misleading claims.

July 31, 2001

Coding, Printing & Labeling

Biotech food updates

In comments to FDA, the National Food Processors Assn. reiterated its support of FDA’s proposed guidance for voluntary labeling of biotech foods.

July 31, 2001