Coloured Dots on Food Packaging Explained: Myths, Facts, and Uses

Wondering what those coloured dots on food packaging really mean? These mysterious circle marks featuring black, green, red, blue, and orange colours ignite curiosity without any explanation.

These coloured dots don’t indicate food’s freshness and safety, so what do they refer to? But it’s also not the case that these dots are printed on food packaging without any purpose.

So, to clear myths and provide facts and uses, we have compiled this blog post for you. Keep reading!

What’s the Purpose of Coloured Dots on Food Packaging?

Coloured dots are also known as registration marks or printer’s colour control patches. The interesting fact about these coloured dots is that they have nothing to do with the product itself and don’t tell you about allergens, expiry dates or preservatives.

The only function of these dots is to help manufacturers and printers control ink and colour consistency during the printing process to avoid blurry prints and misalignment. There’s no other special purpose of these dots.

Uses of Coloured Circle Dots on Food Packaging

Coloured dots are printed or labelled on food packaging for a reason. The very first use of these dots is colour calibration. It means each colour dot shows how a specific ink is printing. If the dot is too dark or too light, it clearly depicts that there is an issue with the cyan ink feed.

Also, the dot helps in checking ink density and saturation. If the dot on the packaging is faded, then it may be adjusted by checking ink levels. The third use is print alignment verification, where dots help to confirm that all colours are perfectly aligned without any misalignment.

Printing errors occur, and they can be minimised but not fully eradicated. With the help of these dots, printing operators can easily check for printing errors, if any. The last use is consistency across batches. From the first to the last package, it ensures whether quality remains the same or not.

Facts of Coloured Circle Dots on Food Packaging

The real hand behind these dots is the CMYK colour model (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, K means (Black) which is commonly used for custom printed packaging projects. These four basic inks can be combined in different proportions to produce virtual colour. Mixing point is done by high industrial printers.

During the whole printing process, the ink is applied in separate layers with precise alignment. Any type of misalignment results in blurry prints or colour bleed. That’s exactly where the coloured dots come in.

Another thing you might be thinking is: are coloured dots always in a circular shape? No, circles are common, but the colours may also be in any other shape, like a square or rectangle. Their shape depends on a few things, like:

• Packaging design
• Type of printing machine
• Inks used in product packaging

In the case of flexographic printing, the dots may appear as colour bars or thin lines across the packaging material.

Myths about Coloured Control Patches

Myth: These dots show whether the food is safe or spoiled.

Reality: Coloured dots have nothing to do with food freshness or safety.

Myth: Different colours mean different ingredients or chemicals.

Reality: The colours help printers align and check ink quality, not indicating any ingredient.

Myth: If dots are missing, it’s a sign of fake or substandard packaging.

Reality: Not all packages show these dots; it depends on the design and printer setup.

Myth: Dots are there for retailers to scan and set prices.

Reality: Retail scanners use barcodes and QR codes. The dots have no pricing or scanning function.

Final Thoughts!

Coloured dots on food packaging are simple tools used by printers to make sure packaging is up to mark with no ink smudging issues. These coloured dots may not seem much, but they maintain the overall quality of the product packaging.

Hopefully, this blog post has covered all the essential details you need to know about colour dots on food packaging. Next time, when you want to use these dots for food packaging, use them rightly by keeping these myths, facts and uses in mind.