Digimarc and Multi-Color Corporation boost recycling and product transparency in digital watermark partnership

01 Apr 2021 --- Global label solutions player Multi-Color Corporation (MCC) and Digimarc are partnering to serialize product packaging and labels with Digimarc Barcode in support of food safety and traceability initiatives. 

The Digimarc initiative aims to assess whether a pioneering digital technology – digital watermarks – can enable better sorting and higher-quality recycling rates for packaging. 

Digital watermarks are almost imperceptible codes, the size of a postage stamp, covering the surface of a consumer goods packaging.

“Traceability is essential for consumer brands and food manufacturers to promote consumer safety, mitigate risk and gain real-time insight into raw materials and product locations in farms, warehouses, logistics and distribution centers,” says Matthew Thomas, business development manager at MCC. 

“MCC’s expertise in the area of digital and hybrid printing brings Digimarc’s serialized identities to life and at scale. It’s a partnership that is perfectly positioned to impact the food supply chain of today and the future.”

Optimized plastics sorting
Digimarc is the creator of the Digimarc Platform for digital identification and detection. The technology is touted as having the potential to revolutionize the way packaging is sorted in the post-consumer waste management system by accurately identifying and separating packaging into sorting streams.

MCC is working with Orkla to introduce Digimarc’s digital watermarking identities into packaging for one of its product lines. 

The company is a member of the HolyGrail 2.0 project, and utilizing an additional application of Digimarc with its client Orkla, a supplier of branded consumer goods in Europe and India to improve the sortation of plastic and promote a circular economy.

Digital watermarks are almost imperceptible codes, the size of a postage stamp.The interactive IML (Injection Molding Labels) with Digimarc can enable accurate and reliable scanning.

“With Digimarc digital watermarking, we can alter how people view waste. For example, when a bottle is empty, it becomes unwanted, something to be discarded,” says Pavel Komurka, packaging innovation and sustainability coordinator for Orkla.

“Now imagine if, instead of just throwing this away, the consumer could scan the bottle with their smartphone and be shown new possibilities,” she continues.

“We could present ideas and provide examples, from reuse options to new products created at the end of a recycling stream. With Digimarc, we’re able to explore an exciting new world of opportunities.”

Scott Wilcox, VP of client services for Digimarc, says the partnership with MCC provides a tangible way for consumer brands to get started on their traceability and recycling initiatives.

“By partnering with the intelligent labeling experts at MCC and MCC Verstraete IML, we can improve sortation and the reuse of plastic materials, an issue of paramount importance to the world we all share,” he remarks. 

“Our solution starts with the action of the consumer and extends into better identification in material recovery facilities, eliminating more of the waste that ends up in our environment.”

Boosting traceability
According to the US Department of Agriculture, recalls in the food industry cost approximately US$29 million per occurrence. 

To help mitigate the impact of these recalls, MCC and Digimarc have co-developed a hybrid printing method in which Digimarc Barcode can be printed in large volumes.

Plastic clamshells containing berries, for example, can be serialized with a Digimarc-enhanced label produced by MCC’s hybrid printing process. Quality control procedures ensure Digimarc is scannable throughout the supply chain. 

When consumer brands combine serialized products with an IoT management platform, individual packages can easily be traced back to their origin at a specific farm, and across the entire supply chain.

MCC recently published an original white paper, “Intelligent Food Labelling,” that highlights the challenge of food safety, outlines the benefits of Digimarc Barcode and details how MCC is working with Orkla to support its sustainability goals. 

Edited by Kristiana Lalou