With growing consumer awareness and evolving regulatory requirements driving the need for greater traceability, transparency and thus brand protection, there is a shift towards additional data embedded within product coding on candy box packaging. Coders must keep pace by maintaining print quality on the newer, more sustainable materials while enabling manufacturers to store increasing amounts of variable information on products.

Candy market coding is advancing far beyond lot and expiry codes to include additional “smart” data embedded in serialized 2D DataMatrix and QR codes including the new GS1 Digital Link standard, the US FDA’s FSMA Rule and the EU’s Wine Regulation to name a few. These shifts provide greater product information, traceability and even promotional codes and late-stage customization.  In order to meet market and regulatory demands, the Markem-Imaje SmartLase ® laser printer solutions,  and new UV printers, respond to these challenges by offering superb code quality and compliance with local and international regulations and standards plus efficiency on all substrates, including mono-materials and foils composed of largely recycled materials.

Ensuring product consistency

A significant aspect of consumers’ emotional connection with trusted confectionery brands is enjoying the same experience every time. Consistency of quality, taste and presentation is key to continued loyalty. Public responses to changes in product formula, shape or packaging is proof of that. Manufacturers need to respond to this by assuring reliability at every stage of the production process. An important aspect of this is packaging every product to the same high standard each time. This requirement for exceptional reliability even at high volumes is being met by the Markem-Imaje SmartLase laser printers as they provide patented Intelli’Arc® scribing and on-board Intelli’Cool® for faster coding with greater uptime, reliability and throughput at higher duty cycles.

Counteracting counterfeiting

In 2022, the U.K. Food Standards Agency reported a sharp rise in counterfeit chocolate. This concerning trend has the potential to cause serious harm to customers and to brand perception. Counterfeiting poses significant risks to consumer safety and confectionery brands, not only due to fake products being made in facilities that do not meet rigorous food safety standards, but also because of the potential presence of allergens without the appropriate labelling. High quality, trackable code has a significant role to play in the fight against counterfeiting. Laser marking solutions apply durable, high contrast codes that do not rub off or fade over time, ensuring lifetime traceability of products and reducing the impact of counterfeiting.

Safeguarding well-loved brands

Confectionery occupies a special place in the consumer market. From a celebration cake to a favorite chocolate bar, it’s a sector in which trusted products are perceived as an accessible luxury or a treat, even during difficult times. This is a space in which trust is paramount, so the stakes are high for confectionery companies - even more so with the rise of counterfeiting and shifting attitudes to healthy eating and environmental issues. A hard won and well-established reputation can be damaged significantly by a single incident, whether that is a poorly managed product recall, a sudden release of fakes, or a change to product taste due to new manufacturing conditions. Because while every great confectionery brand is built on trust, it only takes one highly publicized product recall or food safety failure to undermine it. By working with an expert partner to adopt coding solutions proven to address brand protection challenges such as product traceability, safety and consistency, candy market companies can ensure that trusted products remain exactly that.

To read more about how the Markem-Imaje laser marking solutions for candy packaging and how they can help brand protection, please download our Confectionery brochure.