11 January 2018, Helen Lawrence

In the news today shoppers have spotted Tesco Finest range tea at Morrisons in Berkshire

Whose Brew? Morrisons caught selling rival supermarket chain Tesco’s own-brand tea – and its 11p cheaper (The Sun)

A shopper spotted Tesco Finest peppermint and green tea leaves amongst Morrison’s The Best range – and it was cheaper than in Tesco itself.

There was obviously a mix up and Morrisons said this was a mistake by their supplier. Earlier this week a similar thing happened when Sainsbury’s pikelets (a cross between a crumpet and pancake for the uninitiated!) were on sale at an Asda store in Lancashire.

There has been speculation that the two supermarkets use the same supplier – and even that this is the same product but in a different box.

This is an embarrassing mistake for the supermarkets involved and could mean a fine for the tea leaf supplier. In fact, this will no doubt lead to stricter rules for suppliers about labeling and packaging, and making sure the right product is sent to the right place.

Within the Food and Drink industries, we have found that retailers are now increasingly strict about their suppliers meeting correct packaging specification criteria. Incorrect labeling can result in poor customer satisfaction at best, or at worst, hefty fines or Emergency Product Withdrawals (EPW).

Acrovision has created a suite of in-line Package and Label Inspection Systems to monitor and control production lines; to help product efficiency with 100% correct product in the correct packaging with the correct data:

• Correct and readable barcode
• Correct and readable batch code / serial number
• Label applied and in correct position

Acrovision’s family of Validators has been created so that we can offer a cost-effective solution more or less ‘off-the-shelf’, yet with the flexibiility of tailoring to each customer’s specific needs.

CONTACT US for more information about our Validator packaging and label inspection system