Ink and Ink Dispensers


Why you should have colourful designs on labels


By Gavin Thurston, Business Development Manager, Epson (UK) Ltd


he role of coloured inks on packaging labels has seen significant growth in recent years for a number of reasons. Attracting consumer attention in a highly competitive environment, when shoppers take an average of only 2.5 seconds to select a product on a shelf, is one reason for greater use of coloured ink, particularly for brands. Another is the increased use of labels to complete packaging, such as for in-mould labels on containers or as a way to seal produce.


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Labels are also having to work harder and convey more information as a result of ever evolving regulations and requirements. As a result, the use of coloured ink has grown and even become a necessity for some sectors. For example, for hazard and ingredient labels, the use of colour is legally required. GHS labelling standard requires visual, colour coded hazard warning to ensure chemical hazard warnings are universally understood. Since 2021 and the introduction of Natasha’s Law allergens on food require accurate labelling where pre-packed food, sold on- site or off-site, has to be individually labelled with a full list of ingredients. Allergen must be highlighted by any suitable method including Bold, Italic, UPPERCASE and Colour.


Colour in labels can also make stock management easier such as using colour coding as an additional means of visual identification, which reduces time spent locating items and picking errors, rather than just numerically with mono labels. It can help too with marketing and differentiating your product from your competitors by reinforcing


branding or enabling a more creative design. High-resolution image quality and durable colour labels are particularly in demand by food and beverage, retail, healthcare, and pharmaceutical sectors. Being able to produce them with on-demand digital print and high quality inks ensures control quality, volume


flexibility, and accurate customisation. This also addresses another trend highlighted by Smither’s The Future of Digital Printing to 2032 report; the increased focus on more local production for print and packaging. It reduces reliance on single source just-in- time supply to quickly respond to changing market conditions.


Essential to meeting all of these needs is an ink that adheres to all the necessary guidelines and best practices.


As Epson produces its own ink, it invests directly in systems and hygienic processes. Our facilities meet the internationally recognised Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) standards (EC) No. 2023/2006 EU Regulations.


Inks for our ColorWorks on-demand colour label printers that are suited to these market sectors, are manufactured with food grade hygiene management, implementing Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) risk assessment at each stage of production. They are compliant with EU Regulation framework (EC) No. 1935/2004, Plastics Implementation Measure Regulation (EU) 10/2011 and included in Swiss Ordinance (RS 817.023.21) on Food Contact Materials for food packaging printing inks. Epson is also a member of EuPIA and adheres to the guidelines on printing inks applied to the food packaging materials and articles, according to GMP (EC) No. 2023/2006 under European Framework Regulation (EC) No. 1935/2004. The inks are designed for the Epson’s ColorWorks C4000 that delivers exceptionally crisp, photo-quality images and barcodes and up to 1200 dpi resolution with variable droplet sizes. They also run in the ColorWorks C6000 and Colorworks C6500 printers that support media widths from 25.4mm to 112mm and 25.4mm to 215.9mm respectively. They can produce high quality print on a wide range of media including textured paper from tiny labels for vaping liquid bottles, to large durable labels that are suitable for chemical drums. Colour matching functionality ensures impactful,


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May 2024


www.convertermag.com


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