Where there’s a chill, theres a way.

The Challenge

A self-adhesive board grade, used as a wrap-around label and supplied into a chilled food environment, was prompting issues in-store and at the contract packers. When the labelled product was placed in the chill cabinets, the printed image was attacked by the high moisture environment, causing a potential food safety concern.

To add to the difficulties, the adhesive allowed no repositionability if misapplied. The moisture level made the ink delaminate from the face material, and caused unsightly flakes of material to litter chill cabinets. The lack of repositionability resulted in substantial wastage of product at the point of application, giving rise to significant downtime.

Innovation, Construction, Resolution

Smith & McLaurin (SMCL) were approached to develop a construction to resolve these issues.

• SMCL’s technical team sourced a superior coated board and developed an in-house testing process to analyse the level of moisture ingress in papers.
• A bespoke adhesive was created in-house using two adhesive components to ensure the required degree of repositionability before a permanent bond formed with the product surface.
• A4 samples of the construction were sent to the customer for evaluation.
• Within five working days a trial was manufactured and delivered for printing and conversion.
• Printed labels were delivered to the end user for evaluation and approval.

What Happened Next

The final construction successfully overcame the two key issues. SMCL helped boost efficiency, save time during application and avoid a food safety issue. Demand from the end user increased and the customer experienced a significant rise in sales.