Did you know that non-compliant labels can also lead to fines?

Prepackaged foods cannot do without food labels, which are an important means of protecting consumers’ legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law. If food labels do not meet regulatory requirements — for example, wrinkled labels, or labels that smudge or fall off easily — the relevant authorities will penalize the food processing company involved. Companies therefore need to choose suitable equipment, such as self-adhesive labeling machines and real-time print-and-apply labeling machines, and deal promptly with problems that arise during use, such as label lifting, to keep the labeling machine working properly and ensure labeling quality.

Recently, a food processing company was penalized for producing labels that did not meet regulations: it was fined more than RMB 190,000 and its illegal gains were confiscated. This also serves as a warning to other food processing companies about the compliant use of labels on prepackaged foods. Food labels mainly refer to the words, graphics, colors, symbols, and all explanatory information on prepackaged foods. Under the relevant regulations, food labels must not be separated from the prepackaged food, and the label’s explanatory information must not become blurred or fall off during distribution.

At present, the range of labeling machines in China keeps expanding: flat-surface labeling machines, round-bottle labeling machines, two-side labeling machines, corner labeling machines, side labeling machines, and the real-time print-and-apply labeling machines that have become popular in the past year or two, among others. Technical levels have also improved greatly, moving from manual and semi-automatic labeling to automated high-speed labeling machines, with labeling efficiency and quality much improved, and they are widely used in food, beverage, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries. So how can food processing companies use labeling machines to better ensure that food labels meet regulatory requirements?

Industry observers believe that, on the one hand, companies need to understand the food label rules in the General Standard for the Labeling of Prepackaged Foods, so that they do not incur unnecessary penalties for non-compliant labels due to unfamiliarity with the requirements. On the other hand, they should use professional labeling machines, choose suitable labeling equipment, and deal promptly with problems that arise during use, such as label lifting, to keep the machine working properly and ensure labeling quality.

The penalty case for non-compliant food labels shows that wrinkled, blurred, or detached labels during distribution prevent consumers from obtaining label information normally or intuitively, and to a certain extent this does not comply with the General Standard for the Labeling of Prepackaged Foods. Food processing companies therefore need to choose suitable labeling equipment, such as self-adhesive labeling machines, to ensure labeling quality. We have learned that self-adhesive labeling machines can automatically separate bottles, feed the label web, and separate labels synchronously, with high labeling efficiency.

More importantly, self-adhesive labeling machines use mechatronic technology with high overall sensitivity, so even irregular packaging corners can be labeled flat and neatly. In addition, a high-torque stepper motor drives an advanced system with high torque at low speed and stable speed, avoiding unstable or uneven labeling speeds that damage labels and affect labeling quality. They also have photoelectric control devices that control labeling pressure and temperature according to process requirements, ensuring the label is applied firmly without lifting or falling off.

It is worth noting, however, that although self-adhesive labeling machines ensure neat labeling and firmly attached food labels, other external factors can still cause food labels to lift and eventually fall off.

For example, if the food label itself does not have enough tack, its adhesion must be increased to make it hold more firmly; if the packaging material is too smooth — such as bottles, cans, and boxes — labeling becomes more difficult, and the surface quality of the packaging material must be improved to ensure labeling quality.

In addition, thick label material also affects how firmly food labels adhere, so soft label materials should be used wherever possible; better label flexibility greatly reduces label lifting and prevents the adhesive from detaching automatically at low temperatures. Labeling machines also tend to generate static electricity during operation, which affects labeling quality to some extent. Users can appropriately raise the humidity and cleanliness of the labeling area and keep labeling away from dust to improve results.

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