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Meadow Gold milks coding machinery

It wasn't too long ago that a one-line, 12-digit code was all that Southern Foods was able to hot-stamp onto its one-gal, high-density polyethylene jugs of Meadow Gold-brand milk.

The ink-jet code applied in-line (below and inset) to the shoulder of milk jugs makes it easy for retail store employees and con
The ink-jet code applied in-line (below and inset) to the shoulder of milk jugs makes it easy for retail store employees and con

Now the Delta, CO, dairy can print up to four lines of type, including a customized message to accommodate special promotions.

"We used to hot-stamp a [use-by] date and our plant code number onto a label [that's applied] to the side of the container," says Mark Ownby, the Delta plant manager. That date was hard to find both for consumers and retail workers. Seeing code dates is important to store employees in rotating stock so that containers with fast-approaching use-by dates are displayed in front of those with a later use-by date.

To alleviate the limitations of hard-to-see dates and limited code information, the dairy purchased a Linx 6200 Series small-character continuous ink-jet printer made in England and distributed in the U.S. by Diagraph (St. Louis/Earth City, MO). "We use the coder on our one-gallon jugs," Ownby explains. The coder prints directly onto the container's shoulder, which is easily visible to store employees and consumers.

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