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Sunday, November 18, 2018

Foodie "Fit" Labels

Foodie Fit, https://www.foodiefitmeals.com/is a Las Vegas meal prep company that combines the knowledge of macro and micro nutrients to create healthy and delicious dishes. Pick the meals that best suit your diet & appetite or create your own custom meals. They add new items every other week so that your taste buds never get bored. The meals are prepared fresh daily and never frozen. They offer free nutrition consultations to help you hit your fitness goals.

Foodie Fit Labels
Foodie Fit Labels
Andrew Kowal, owner of FoodieFit came to us some time ago.  As a new food company, Andrew wanted to print labels internally as they needed them.  “As we rotate our menu every other week, it’s impossible to use preprinted labels.  Large minimum order quantities and obsolete labels make purchasing preprinted labels not feasible for us”.  We started working with Andrew by printing the FoodieFit logo on the C3500 printer to review the print quality.



I tell people the C3500 printer is perfect when you want to print a image (like a logo), text, color codes and barcodes on a basic white label.

For Andrew, we calculated the estimate ink cost of FoodieFit’s initial label designs.  For a 4” x 4”, the estimated cost was $0.013/label.


C3500 Ink Calculation
$0.013/4" x 4" Label

Based on the costs of the printer, labels and ink, Andrew purchased a C3500 as well as BarTender.  As Andrew changed label artwork constantly, he wanted a way to update ingredients and product names quickly.


After about 1 year of using the C3500, Andrew contacted me about a C7500.  “We need faster printing as well as a higher print quality.”  After some print samples, Andrew purchased a C7500 and made the C3500 his “backup” printer.


C7500 Label Printer for Foodie Fit
C7500 Label Printer for Foodie Fit

About the same time, Andrew decided that FoodieFit needed some type of tamper-evident label.  Given their packaging, FoodieFit decided to begin using a 2” x 16”; to wrap around and seal their package.  Given the length of the label, we recommended they use a fanfolded version of this label.

And the fanfold labels work great for them.

16" Fanfold, Inkjet Labels
16" Fanfold Labels

According to Andrew, “the fanfold labels restack easily even after printing a large batch. It’s easy for our operators to print, grab a stack and begin labeling the packages.”


Foodie Fit Color Coded Labels
Foodie Fit Color Coded Labels
With the ability to print labels on-demand, Foodie Fit has implemented a color code system for their products.
  • Red for dinner items
  • Green for “active” products (more energy)
  • Yellow for breakfast items
  • Blue for snacks.

Green Color Codes For Active Food Products
Green Color Codes For Active Food Products
Color coding helps both customers and employees select the products they want; Especially when stored together in a warehouse or even in a refrigerator.


FoodieFit Color Label Products
FoodieFit Color Label Products

FoodieFit’s progression from the C3500 to the C7500 is not uncommon.  As the confidence and requirements grow for printing on-demand color labels, it’s natural to want higher print quality and faster production.  And we want to help our customer’s grow their business.

FoodieFit is a great customer for Color Label Solutions.  And I admire Andrew’s entrepreneurial skills as his operation grows, with plans for more locations and centralized production.  One of the best aspects of working at Color Label Solutions are customers like Andrew and FoodieFit.

If you need labels for your food products; or even color coded labels, contact us.  We’ll help you produce the labels you need, when you need them.

Guy Mikel
855-962-7670

Saturday, November 3, 2018

L801 Cannabis Labels

MMG Agriculture,  http://www.mmgagriculture.com/was one of the first MME Cultivations to open when the medical market hit Nevada in 2015. Started to provide the best medicinal cannabis to patients seeking alternative ways to relieve medical problems without the use of pharmaceuticals, MMG has strains proven for symptom relief. And their lead cultivator and crew are passionate about the cannabis they grow. As a boutique grow, MMG Agriculture provides Nevada with the highest quality marijuana.


MMG Agriculture
MMG Agriculture

I met Sarah Rosenfeld, the owner of MMG Agriculture at the Reno Cannabis Convention, http://www.therenoexpo.com/in early 2018.  After seeing options at MJ BIZCON Next in New Orleans, https://mjbizconference.com/next/, reviewing print samples, and watching an on-site demo, Sarah purchased a L801 printer and gloss poly labels.  Ryan Goig, who designs the labels for MMG, combined with the L801 is producing some great looking labels.

L801 Printed on Gloss Poly
L801 Printed on Gloss Poly
I really like the look of the designs; and the print quality they are achieving.  I especially like the use of colors on a basic white label. This type of design produces not only great looking labels but saves ink costs.

L801 Printed Label
L801 Printed Label
And after printing thousands of labels, MMG has used hardly any ink as yet. From the Afinia L801 Toolbox, you can see the ink costs of every print job (sorry for the crappy picture):

L801 Ink Costs
L801 Ink Costs
The L801 label printer has some of the lowest ink costs of any benchtop label printer.

For their designs, Ryan has set up form-fillable PDF’s to enable the easy input of variable data onto the label prior to printing.

MMG Agriculture Label Artwork
MMG Agriculture Label Artwork
According to Sarah, aligning the printing on the labels correctly has been a learning process. To produce full-bleed labels, be sure to design your labels slightly larger than the actual size.  I recommend .03” larger on all sides to insure the print goes to the edge of die-cut labels.  Afinia offers advice on full-bleed label printing on page 30 of their manual:  

And I wrote an earlier post on full-bleed printing using the L801 as well:

MMG has great looking labels on their doob tubes as well:

MMG Doob Tube Label
MMG Doob Tube Label
And now, we’re looking at moving to a tapered label to make the gap on the tube equal top and bottom for MMG.

Non-Tapered Label On Doob Tube
Non-Tapered Label On Doob Tube
With tubes, you should consider using a tapered label.

And if you are labeling joint tubes, consider our semi-automatic applicator option:



Or even a fully automated option:


According to Sarah, “the print quality we’re getting on the L801 is great.  For our operation, the L801 has been a good choice.”   And I want to add: Sarah and Ryan have been great to support.  We're lucky to work with people like Sarah and Ryan.

The L801 is a great choice for those manufactures who need high print quality labels; especially when combined with gloss poly material.  If you need great print quality on your labels, contact us.  We’ll help you with all aspects of your print on-demand color label solution.

Purchase the L801 here: https://colorlabelsolutions.com/product/afinia-l801-color-label-printer/ 

Guy Mikel
855-962-7670