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Global Food & Beverage Company Reduced Plastic Usage by Digitizing Packaging

Global Food & Beverage Company Reduced Plastic Usage by Digitizing Packaging

A leading global vision systems provider partnered with Digimarc to remove shrink-wrap plastic labelling on over one billion bottles annually while successfully ensuring products are identified throughout the manufacturing and quality control process.

Background

A leading global food and beverage company aspired to reduce plastic waste. The company decided to remove plastic heat shrink sleeves, which removes the ability to identify bottles and exposes them to mismatched content and containers.

Challenge

With food products, reducing plastic packaging while still delivering industrial identification can be difficult. With over 50 different product flavors, the company needed to verify the flavor going into each bottle during the manufacturing process was accurately captured on the bottle’s lid for easy identification during production.

"We want to offer nutritious, high-quality food and drinks in more responsible packaging while maintaining 100% quality checks throughout the production and we achieved this goal with Digimarc!"
– Food and Beverage Company Executive

 

Approach

Using Digimarc, the company connected their product item with a digital twin that captures flavor-specific product data for production efficiency purposes. Digimarc digital watermarks are used as the bridge between a physical item and the product data carried by its digital twin, allowing the company to verify the correct lid is applied to the right bottle throughout the manufacturing production process. Covert digital watermarks are integrated into the artwork and printed directly on the lids using existing inks and printing processes, digitizing each bottle without impacting its appearance or changing existing workflow, saving 22 tons of plastic and 159 tons of carbon emissions.

Outcome

By removing the plastic wraps from bottles, the company successfully eliminated multiple tons of plastic annually, preventing tons of carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere each year. This solution was implemented on the brand’s production line using Digimarc digital watermarking technology.

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