Helping alcholic drinks producers to meet the requirements of Russia’s EGAIS Anti-Counterfeiting

Helping alcholic drinks producers to meet the requirements of Russia’s EGAIS Anti-Counterfeiting Legislation

Macsa ID has developed a high speed, automatic printing, labelling and vision system to help alcoholic drinks producers, processors and packers increase operating efficiencies whilst also meeting the specialist track and trace requirements of Russia’s stringent Automated Unified State Information System (EGAIS) anti-counterfeiting legislation.

The EGAIS legislation is designed to track the production volumes and turnover of every alcoholic product available on the Russian market, including foreign imports. It requires all alcoholic beverage companies to label drinks bottles with a special FSM tax stamp that contains a unique number which must be traceable throughout the entire packaging and distribution process so that they can be properly taxed and avoid counterfeiting.

Russia’s EGAIS regulation also applies to foreign importers and is designed to ensure distributors comply with contracts by not entering other markets to achieve better purchase prices by volume. As part of the EGAIS requirements, it is imperative to be able to trace which drinks bottles go into each box, which boxes go on to each pallet and where each pallet goes.

Macsa ID’s high speed printing, labelling and vision inspection model applies labels with a unique datamatrix code and EGAIS identifier to the cap of each bottle. These are scanned by an advanced 360° vision system and linked to the EGAIS identifier by the Macsa ID’s market-leading Integra packaging software which controls and records the entire process.

The 2D barcodes are used to print the box and pallet grouping labels which when scanned will provide information about the contents of each box loaded onto the pallet.  

This automatic aggregation of the codes significantly improves operating efficiencies as there is no need to unpack pallets or boxes to scan the official EGAIS label on each bottle individually.

Macsa ID’s integrated printing, labelling and 360° vision system comprises an automatic MLA PR label applicator with thermal transfer printer which offers high speed printing and application of datamatrix codes on each bottle cap. It applies the labels with hot melt adhesive and can operate at speeds up to 8,500 bottles per hour.

The EGAIS number, which is issued by the Russian Government, includes a unique combination of 150 letters and numbers which the comprise the tax stamp type, tax stamp series, tax stamp number, internal service information, a checksum and an electronic signature.