Throw-back to 1998

New metal detectable tag designed by Piroto

Hailed as a  ‘breakthrough for the food industry’ by International Food Hygiene magazine, Piroto’s 100% metal detectable tag hit the market in 1998. Major food retailers, like Tesco, were soon advising their suppliers to use our new, innovative design.

Prior to the launch of Piroto’s traceability tag, competitors’ labels only contained a small portion of material capable of being detected by the industrial metal detectors used in the food industry. This meant that food contamination by labelling material was a very real risk. The Piroto tag however was fully metal detectable, thus presenting no such hazard.

Before launching the tag, Piroto tested it with all the major metal detector manufacturers. Trials proved that a tag material fragment as small as 3.9mm² could be easily detected. The tags had an excellent tear resistance and strength too, thus reducing the risk of contamination even further.

Partnering Kent Salads Ltd to put the new metal detectable tags through their paces, they declared the metal detectable tags ‘much easier to handle’ than their existing system. The unique presentation of the tags on a roll meant that Kent Salads could maintain traceability by automatically thermally printing ingredients, batch code, weight, and date onto each tag. In addition, they used the tags to colour code bins and trays throughout their operation to identify production days, fresh food and sauces.

Pizza, Pasta & Italian Food Magazine also picked up the story of the new metal detectable tags in 1998 in an article entitled ‘detectable tags for diligence.’ They noted that Piroto’s metal detectable tags were suitable for high-risk areas in food production where traceability and foreign object detection were vitally important.

25 years on Piroto are still at the forefront of traceability labelling. We have continued to innovate new designs and materials for our customers to suit today’s highly automated food production operations.