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Friday, July 21, 2006

Edible Test Targets

Back in 2004 Pringles introduced Pringles Prints. In a nutshell Procter & Gamble, the parent company of Pringles partnered with Trivial Pursuit maker Hasbro to use content from the Trivial Pursuit Junior game to be printed on individual Pringles crisps.

According to the announcement from May 2004:

Pringles Prints are made using a proprietary technology. Words and images can be printed on one side of the crisp right side up, upside down, in blue or red. This technology is the first-of-its kind in the U.S. to be used on food. The technology uses food coloring and doesn't alter the delicious taste of this popular snack.

Inkjet Chip By proprietary, I guess they mean a small ink jet head designed to accommodate the the concave structure of the crisps and filled with Blue #1 or Red #3 food coloring. The secret proprietary technology can be see in action to the left.

Like any print production line, quality control is important. RIT Grad student D. Michael Hansen came across what seems to be a quality test target printed on a chip.

Michael says, "I was eating some Pringles potato chips with some riddles on them when I noticed that one had a test target printed on it. Just thought you'd be interested to see. It tasted good, too."

potato_chip_test_target

Thanks Mike for sharing your cool find!

Update: More on Printed Pringles

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4 Comments

  1. sell it on ebay!

    Comment by Mike Woods - Friday, July 21, 2006 at 06:52 AM

  2. Hehe, if you think we can sell our test patterns on ebay maybe we should start printing them as a product offering ;)

    We'll take the "tastes good" as positive feedback by the way!

    Comment by Charles Hill - Sunday, August 6, 2006 at 06:39 PM

  3. I'm impressed the chip survived, because it was near the bottom of the can. I think it was "Original" flavor...

    It would also be fun to know some statistics, like how often the targets are printed and the QC methods used to track them.

    Comment by D Michael - Monday, August 7, 2006 at 09:40 AM

  4. With the concentration of print and imaging geeks in the Rochester metro area, I think you might have a strong market for Pringles with printed test targets.

    Comment by Adam - Monday, August 7, 2006 at 06:39 PM