Piggyback Labels for Frozen Foods

The food industry has its own set of deadlines when it comes to freshness. In addition to the natural freshness of fruits and produce, there are the business reasons that increase the demands for efficiency, accuracy and traceability.

Labels are often used to identify lots/bins of fruits and vegetables and keeping the related data such as growing locations, harvest dates, expiration dates, and handling details. Specialty labels (non-toxic adhesives, logo shapes, freezer, and moisture resistance) are often required.

For some foods, such as frozen, the original fruit or produce will go through several stations at the processing plant as receiving, washing, cutting, freezing, packaging, storage, shipping for example. Using a piggyback label is an effective way of keeping track of where it is from picked to packaged.

Here you see the photo of a piggyback label designed by WincoID. If you look carefully, you can see it has a long continuous  liner that holds all the labels on a roll or fanfold. Between each perforation, you’ll find a separate label liner with 3 labels (one larger, two smaller) on each panel. This allows for printing of all 3 labels at once, usually at the start of the processing.

As the product moves through processing, the smaller labels are applied to the accompanying paperwork. This provides a direct, accurate identification of the lot that is reported in the paperwork. Or if the remaining 2 labels are printed with a barcode,  and applied to the paperwork,  fast, accurate scanning replaces manual computer entries back at the office, or you can scan the barcode on the production line and send the information in real-time to the main office.

There are many ways piggyback labels can be used to help you speed processing, provide traceability, identify problems, rotate stock, and keep food production lines moving. For more ways piggyback labels are used, visit our article here.

Piggyback labels can be made in various sizes, preprinted, printed-on-demand, full color, sequential data or manufactured blank to fit your exact application. Here is a short video of these special piggyback labels being made by our label converting team. Notice the two-steps to remove stock from the liner to create the multiple layers characteristic of piggyback labels.

Do you have a hard-to-solve labeling application?

If your labels are not quite doing the job, or you want to see how small changes to your labeling and barcoding can make some big differences, give us a call at 603-508-1553 or contact us here. Need labels to survive in harsh production environments, exposure to water, extreme temperatures, long-term storage? Be sure to ask about our line of durable labels.