Method of laser marking of produce

Abstract

A method of marking the skin of a piece of produce with an identifying mark includes the steps of: providing a piece of produce; providing a laser which emits a high intensity light beam to mark the skin of the produce and which laser light beam can be controlled such that a depth of the mark formed on the skin is controlled; relatively moving the piece of produce and the laser; directing the laser light beam along a predetermined path along the produce skin which corresponds to the identifying mark to be applied on the produce skin; and controlling the depth the laser light beam impacts the produce skin such that identifying mark does not penetrate completely through the produce skin to the meat of the produce. Movement of the piece of produce is effected past the laser device while effecting movement of the laser device relative to the piece of produce. To mark the produce skin, the color of an area of the produce skin may be changed to form the identifying mark or the skin may be etched to form the identifying mark.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.