Linx Printing Technologies has ensured that a new range of pies from Shire Foods includes essential traceability information directly on the foil tray – ensuring that customers can cook with confidence even after the outer packaging is removed.
Shire Foods is an independent family owned business with nearly forty years' experience in manufacturing savoury pies, pasties and sausage rolls. As well as being the market leader in supplying pies to professional football clubs, Shire also produces several products for leading supermarkets.
The company recently launched a range of square pies that were packaged in silver foil trays. Previously, colour-coded trays were used in order to easily identify different flavours, but Shire Foods felt that this method was impractical, both in terms of stock management and product changeovers.
The company already used the Linx 4900 Continuous Ink Jet (CIJ) printer to code onto cardboard outer packaging across a range of products, and decided to trial the machine to print flavour information directly onto the foil. Shire was impressed by the results, particularly by the ability to include a batch code alongside other data, thus meeting traceability requirements.
In addition, the Linx 4900 was able to meet the demanding technical specification of the application. "The printhead needed to be small enough to get between the conveyor and the product so that we could code the side wall of the foil," comments Michael Tzirki, Managing Director of Shire Foods. "Linx worked closely with us to provide a suitable solution."
Shire has purchased two Linx 4900s specifically for this application. Each prints an 8mm high, two line code: the first details the product description (for example "STK & KIDNEY" while the second comprises the batch code). The two production lines run at 15m per minute, accounting for around 50,000 pies per day from the one production line
The new coding method has already proved a success with Shire Foods customers who sell the heated pies in-store. "They like the advantage that anyone can read what type of pie they are baking without the need to refer to the outer packaging," explains Michael Tzirki.
Linx's involvement has also been a hit with Shire Foods itself, as
Michael Tzirki confirms. "We think Linx machines are very easy to use, and we have had excellent customer service and sales support throughout the process."
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