What makes POLYtrust ® edible UV invisible and visible inks unique is that it utilises our unique polymer thermal inkjet technology, meaning our ink can stick onto fruit & vegetables and not be easily rubbed off.

Watch the video below of a POLYtij ® S1 printer printing onto lemon produceables with the GS1 RSS14 barcodes, standard in our POLYtij ® printers.

Frequently Asked Questions about POLYtrust ® edible UV invisible and visible inks

I understand you launched the Polytrust edible UV invisible ink at Auspack in March. How did the launch go and what did it involve?

Yes, POLYtrust ® edible UV invisible ink was launched at AUSPACK 2017 in Sydney. The interest in the technology was very high with genuine interest from the industry.

We exhibited POLYtrust ® edible UV invisible ink printing in one of our in POLYtij ® S3-1 HP thermal inkjet printers. The aim was to show green apples printed with an actual picked date on the apple itself.

We had a bucket of green apples printed with a “Picked Date” and the show attendees had to guess which one was the freshest.

In a nutshell, what exactly does the invisible ink offer the fresh fruit and vegetable industry? And how can they access this technology?

POLYtrust ® edible UV invisible and visible inks offer new options never thought possible. Now growers or wholesalers can print with HACCP certified edible inks that can either be invisible or visible to the consumer. Even better the cost of applying a “Best Before date”,  “Picked Date” or even a “LOGO” for Growers on individual fruit such as apples, oranges, stone fruit or even kiwi fruit is extremely low. So what does this mean for us, the consumer? The days are numbered when I or my family have to eat a rotten apple……good!

What makes POLYtrust ® edible UV invisible and visible inks unique it that it utilises our unique polymer thermal inkjet technology. This means our ink can stick onto fruit & vegetables and not be easily rubbed off.

What led you to develop the technology?

Have you had this experience buying fruit at your local supermarket?

You buy what appears to be great looking tasty fruit. You take it home for you and your family to enjoy and then with horror you cut the fruit and discover…….it tastes terrible or even worse its totally rotten inside due to poor storage and refrigeration.

The question my family constantly asks is “How old is this fruit?”.

In Australia, fruit is picked “green mature”, rarely ripe. Apples face months of storage, bananas three days of truck travel and stone fruit must withstand the consumers’ squeezing hands.

Behind the facade of the supermarket fresh food section are many tricks of the trade, and even some optical illusions: tomatoes that appear ripe, but aren’t, 11-month-old apples, bananas that are gassed with a hormone and warmed yellow. The methods possibly do compromise taste and nutrition, but the supermarkets say they are done in the consumer’s name. If food does not taste like it used to, perhaps it’s because we’ve demanded it that way.

Now there’s a way that Wholesalers, Growers and retailers can really check to see if the fruit they have is fresh BEFORE it gets to the poor old consumers like us.

Has this technology been used in other sectors before? Or overseas?

Polymer thermal inkjet technology, sold under the brand of POLYtij ®, is sold globally and offers the most advanced thermal inkjet ink technology for Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) in the world today.

Could you see this technology replacing stickers on fruit one day?

Maybe. We see a new roll for the stickers. Inserted of generic produce identification we believe the stickers can be upgraded with a QR, 2D or GS1 RSS14 barcodes for marketing information linked back to specific websites.  Thus the combination of barcode stickers and POLYtrust ® edible UV invisible and visible inks will offer Growers & Retailers the ability to provide the consumer with both freshness, provenance and nutrition information all from the actual fruit itself.

What feedback have you had from the fresh produce industry, and who in particular is  taking interest in this (e.g. wholesalers? retailers?)

It’s still very early days. However the Growers we have spoken too are genuinely excited by what we showed at AUSPACK 2017. Clearly as we speak to more people in there industry we will uncover even more applications that POLYtrust ® edible UV invisible and visible inks can be applied too.

What is very clear from the Growers that we have spoken too is that they need identification and marketing tools to help them sell more of their products.

You’ve mentioned previously that dates such as ‘best before’ could be labelled on the fruit. How would you calculate this?

A key element of our identification solution is the low cost of our technology. The POLYtij ® HP thermal printers capital cost is up to 75% lower than other technologies such as Continuous Inkjet (CIJ). Thus Growers and Wholesalers can install POLYtij ® HP thermal printers using POLYtrust ® edible UV invisible and visible inks on multiple production lines in a cost effective manner, The cost per code printing a “Best Before date”,  “Picked Date” or even a “LOGO” is less than 10 cents per thousands codes.

Is there any other news you’d like to mention from Digital Ink Technologies?

Digital Ink Technologies Pty Ltd has just released our POLYtrust ® anti-counterfiet technology APP and IT website technology.

POLYtrust ® will enable you to print onto both porous, non porous and edible substrates enabling you to target the broader packaging industry.

Unlike the majority of competitors offering ant-counterfeit solutions, and there are many, Digital Ink Technologies Pty Ltd offers a “one stop shop” solution by offering POLYtij ® HP thermal printers & inks.

An important element of POLYtrust ® is that we offer no “cost per scan” for our anti-counterfeit technology if POLYtij ® printers & inks are utilised in the process. Other anti-counterfeit suppliers charge significant license fees, cost per scans and annual website fees that can be as high as USD$30,000 per annum and upwards depending on the volume of products scanned per annum.

Thus Digital Ink Technologies Pty Ltd can offer Growers , Wholesalers and retailers a complete marketing and identification solution.

For more information, contact us today!