Irn Bru. Made in Scotland with lasers.

My local grocery store started carrying bottles of Irn Bru, the Scottish soft drink whose flavor I can only describe as "metallic, but also tutti-frutti". (They were in the ethnic food aisle next to Greek dolma and German spaetzle.)Not trusting that the Irn Bru had necessarily made the journey to Colorado in a timely manner, I checked for an expiration date. When I found it, I was excited, and not just because it hadn't expired yet: the expiration date appears to have been lasered on.The laser heats the surface of the bottle just enough to remove some of it, changing the surface texture from smooth to rough and making the letters and numbers stand out.I've been seeing more and more products with laser-marked lot numbers and expiration dates, including glass bottles, aluminum cans, and paper cartons. Although the laser system is expensive, it's better than ink stamping at making marks on surfaces that are curved, or still hot, or still wet. The telltale sign of a laser-marked product…

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