Interactive Coding Equipment (ICE) is offering a solution to help food companies prepare for a forthcoming new EU food regulation.

Due to come into force in December 2014, the Food Information to Consumers Regulations (FIC) will set rules on how foods should be labelled and what information is mandatory as well as the presentation, style and positioning of this information. New rules for advertisement and distance selling are also included.

On average it takes around three months to plan, design and sign off a new label, and with some leading brands it can take even longer. To help speed up the process of applying the necessary information, ICE has developed its CLARiTY® software, which comes as standard with all of its coders, to give users greater flexibility to make the required changes to labels.

Although a large proportion of the legislation will affect pre-printed label design the CLARiTY® software can specifically fulfil the regulation where it impacts on overprinted information.

The new regulation covers a number of key requirements aimed at making ingredient information much more accessible to consumers. Changes to minimum font size, allergen information, country of origin and nutrition labelling are also covered.

A key benefit of the software enables the user to select almost any Windows TrueType font in any size on the label. For example, a minimum font size of 1.2mm is required for large packs and 0.9mm for medium packs less than 80cm².

New rules requiring allergen information to be clearly distinguished from the rest of the list of ingredients can be met through the ability to highlight, make bold, underline or change the font for these details. For meat producers, another important feature of the software is the flexibility of being able to add variable information regarding fat content onto the label.

The CLARiTY® software is also able to include full traceability, which will meet new rules for country of origin or place of provenance information.

Chris Simpson, ICE’s managing director comments: “The CLARiTY® software gives much more flexibility to our customers, particularly small and medium sized companies, who have less capacity, resource and guidance when regulations such as this are implemented.”

-ENDS-

About Interactive Coding Equipment

Established in 2001, Interactive Coding Equipment (ICE) has become one of the UK’s leading suppliers of digital coding solutions to a wide variety of end markets including food and beverage, pharmaceutical, printing and DIY. From an initial staff of 3, today the company employs 40 people at its purpose-designed headquarters in Nottinghamshire.

ICE has a strong reputation for innovation in a variety of coding and marking technologies including thermal transfer, thermal inkjet, large character marking and print & apply labelling, and this is supported by comprehensive after-sales service and support. The company has an installed base of over 7,000 machines in more than 1,000 customers.