IMS of Smithfield, a wholesale meat supplier of beef, pork, lamb, poultry, game and speciality products to the catering trade, has implemented stringent measures to ensure that health and hygiene are an integral part of its production and food management systems. Working mainly with beef, any new changes in legislation impact heavily on IMS’ production processes.
At the height of the BSE scare, the Government introduced strict guidelines on the packaging and labelling of beef products – they all had to have complete traceability as to where the bovine was grown, slaughtered and cut, for instance. Although the new guidelines were only required for beef products, and only where the goods were handled and packaged, with its varied range of products, IMS could be required to print over a 1,000 labels a day.
With the requirement of 100% accuracy for meat traceability it was essential that IMS assessed its labelling needs and looked to a new solution that could be flexible and at the same time accurate.
IMS wanted a supplier that could provide the necessary tailored software with hardware from a well-established manufacturer. It chose Toshiba TEC hardware supplier KTEC Technologies, which proposed Toshiba TEC B-SX4T Industrial printers and software tailored to IMS’ exact requirements.
The solution was simple to use and produced accurate labels, enabling butchers to easily print their own labels with all the required traceability information, by entering seven or eight keys and
